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MEMORIES OF MANY MEn'' 



^nb (if Some iDomcn: ^ 



PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 



EMPERORS, KINGS, QUEENS, PRINCES, PRESIDENTS, STATES- 
MEN, AUTHORS, AND ARTISTS, AT HOME AND ABROAD, 
DURING THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. 



By MAUNSELL B. FIELD. 




^NEW Y( 



ORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE 

' 18 7 4. y 



PREFACE. 



T" MAKE no pretensions to have written any thing in 
this little book which rises to the dignity of even 
minor history. I know that it is all liable to be treated 
with disdainful scorn by the serious and dignified muse 
whose recording pen traces the solemn and heroic rec- 
ords of the world's march through time, and the immor- 
tal achievements of the great. And yet it seems to me 
that the random, hajD-hazard recollections of men and 
things herein set down can hardly fail to entertain and 
amuse, although they may not instruct the curious read- 
er. If my anecdotes are sometimes trivial, most of them, 
at least, concern persons famous, some in civil, and some 
in military life. If their perusal should not add any 
thing to the real knowledge which you already possess 
of those to whom they relate, they may, nevertheless, 
succeed in presenting to you in bolder relief some of the 
peculiarities which distinguished them. 

I have made no attempt to be otherwise than desul- 
tory. I have wandered on through the garden of mem- 
ory, dreamily and almost at random, plucking here 
and there, it might be flowers, and it might be weeds, 
as they presented themselves to my hand ; and I vent- 
ure to offer them, unsymmetrically arranged and loosely 

A 



ii PREFACE. 

tied together, for your acceptance. Some of them you 
may find worthy to be pressed and preserved with your 
own collections ; and others you may drop by the way- 
side, as having neither fragrance nor beauty. In either 
event, I shall be content. 

How many of those about whom I have written have 
passed away ! Webster, and Adams, and Yan Bueen, 
and PiEKCE, and Maecy, and Scott, and Soule, and Lin- 
coln, and Sewaed, and Stanton, and Fessenden, and 
Geeeley, and Chase, are all gone ! The martyr Presi- 
dent was carried through the land in a triumphal march 
to a now neglected and crumbling tomb ! But yester- 
day I followed the remains of the great Chief Justice to 
their temporary resting-place in the beautiful George- 
town Cemetery. Ieving, and Thackeeay, and Dice:ens, 
and IIawthoene, and Coopee, and James, and Willis, 
and PoE, have passed before us to the silent land. The 
Empeeoe Napoleon III. no longer wields a sceptre, but is 
again an exile in England, and fills there an exile's grave ! 
Wellington, Palmeeston, and Macaulay have dropped 
the sword, the portfolio, and the pen ! 

I feel that it is a privilege to have seen such men, and 
to have known most of them ; and it has made me happy 
during the brief, drowsy hours of a summer vacation to 
seek relief from the duties of an arduous profession by 
wandering back into the past in their company. 

M. B. F. 

New York, October, 1873. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART L— ABROAD. 
CHAPTER I. 

An Interview with Edward Everett. — The Duke of "Wellington at 
the Horse Guards, and in the Lords. — Count d'Orsay's Inter- 
erence with the Mob. — Minister King and his Negro Major- 
domo. — M. Guizot and M. Thiers. — The Duke de Nemours at the 
Races. — The Duke d'Aumale returning from Algeria. — The 
Duke de Montpensier at a Concert. — The King of Holland : on 
Horseback; inhisPicture-Galleiy; his Habits. — Minister Wheat- 
on. — The King of Prussia at Potsdam. — The Crown Prince and 
Piincess of Prussia in Switzerland. — The Emperor and Empress 
of Austria, and the Archduchess Sophia. — The " Festive" IVIr. 
Jenifer. — The Archduke Charles of Austria and his Daughter at 
Baden. — The Grand-duke of Tuscany. — Charles Albert of Sar- 
dinia. — The Eccentric Hereditary Grand-duke of Lucca: his 
Peculiarities, and his Tragical Death. — An Indiscreet " Brum- 
magem " Man. — The Duke d'Ossuna. — The Marquis de St. Jago. 
— Pope Gregory XVI., and Cardinal Mezzofanti. — The Eoman 
Nobility. — Charles Dickens in Rome : Sight-seeing and Carnival- 
making. — King Bomba of Naples : his Vulgarity and Brutality. 
— Sultan Abdul Medjid. — Mehemet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, his 
Senile Gallantry. — Ibrahim Pasha and Abbas Pasha. — Prince 
Albert of Prussia at the Second Cataract. — Sofia, the Discarded 
Wife of Abbas Pasha. — The Greek Revolution of 1844. — Prince 
Mavrocordato. — The Beautiful Women of Athens. ^Washing- 



iy TABLE OF C0NT:ENTS. 

ton Irving at Madrid. — An Anecdote of Dickens in New 
York Pages 13-31 

CHAPTER II. 

Prince Lucien Murat : liis Appearance, Manners, and Reputation. — 
His Story about liis Uncle, Josepli Bonaparte. — His Election to 
the Frencli Legislative Assembly. — Sj)ring and Early Summer 
Weather in England. — George N. Sanders and George W, Ken- 
dall. — Lord Fitzroy Somerset, a Chance Traveling Companion, 
— The Iron Duke and the Chartists. — Yankee Curiosity. — Dis- 
jiersing the Mob. — Roasting a Cockney. — Queen Victoria at the 
Opera 32-44 

CIIAPTEE III. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson iu London. — A Visit with him to the New 
Houses of Parliament. — A Call ujjon Sir Benjamin Brodie. — A 
Mysterious Foreigner. — Loyalty of the English Lower Middle- 
Classes. — A Future Emperoi*. — Baroness Coutts and Mrs. Bates. 
— Lady Blessington. — Mitchel, the Manager of the St. James' 
Theatre. — A Problematical Hoax. — An Anglicized Knicker- 
bocker. — Queer Shop Signs 45-56 

CHAPTER IV. 

Acting Secretary of Legation in France. — Sweets of Diplomatic 
Life. — Yankee "Cheek." — A Virginian Gentleman. — Slaveholder 
and Abolitionist. — Presenting Uni^resentables. — Donn Piatt. — 
A Blunt Soldier. — Sponging a Uniform. — Chapeau vs. Chimney- 
pot. — Diplomatic Catastrophe 67-74 

CHAPTER V. 

Secretary Marcy and the Ostend Dispatch. — The Author starts for 
Madrid. — Riding Spanish. — Pierre Soul6. — His Duel with M, 
Turgot. — A Baited Minister. — A Spanish Constituent Cortes. — 
Wheedling the Queen-mother. — The Blciclc Warrior Aflfaii". — Pre- 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. y 

paring for an Audience. — Spanish Etiquette. — Baffling a Cham- 
Ijerlain. — The " Innocent Isabel." — Royal Aflfability. — A Press- 
ing Imitation. — Baffled again 75-94 

CHAPTER YI. 

The " Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin." — The Duke and the Duchess 
of Alva. — A Drive with Mr. Soule. — He resigns in Disgust. — His 
Confidence in the Ostend " Platform." — Farewell to Madrid. — 
Mr. Mason stricken down by a Paralytic Stroke . 95-100 

CHAPTER yn. 

President of the Board of United States Commissioners at the Ex- 
position in Paris. — Perplexities and Annoyances. — The Sewing- 
Machine People. — Mr, Goodyear's Vulcanized India-Rubber. — 
Plon-Plon.— The Princess Mathilde Demidofi".— An " Enfant Ter- 
rible." — A Would-be Leader of the French Democracy. — The 
Bourbons' Blunder 101-110 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Stupidity or Malice? — A Gathering of Royal Personages. — The 
Empress Eugenie. — The Emperor Intrigued. — India-Rubber 
Cannon-Balis. — Horace Greeley at the Exposition. — He gets into 
Trouble. — He is carried off to Clichy. — A Dinner to the Ameri- 
can Commissioners. — "Parson Adams in Jail." — Seeing Good 
Society 111-133 

CHAPTER IX. 

An Odd Fish in Paris. — Self-titled Humanes. — The American Eagle 
Soars. — A Free and Easy Dii^lomatist. — An Attemj)ted Assassi- 
nation. — Some of the Emperor's Characteiistics. — A Royal Anx- 
ious Mother. — The Emperor's Irony. — Guizot and Vattemarre. — 
Ex-President Van Buren, Majors Mordecai and Delafield, and 
Captain McClellan in Paris. — The Marquis of Farintosh. — 
Thackeray's Knowledge of the French. — A Money Lord's Po- 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

liteness. — A Hebrew Funeral. — Award of tlie Cross of tlie Legion 
of Honor 123-136 



CHAPTER X. 

The Ways of tlie English. — The Duchess of Sutherland and Mrs. 
Stowe. — A Negro Sculptor. — Some of Lady Byron's Peculiari- 
ties. — Macaulay at Home. — A Dinner with Thackeray at the 
Reform Club. — Thackeray and Dickens. — Tom Taylor, Dramatist 
instead of Parson. — A Party at Mrs. S. C. Hall's: Professor Owen, 
Jenny Lind, Lover, and Hawthorne present. — British Eloquence, 
with Mention of Lord Derby, the Bishop of Oxford, the Duke of 
Argyll, Lord Grey, the Marquis of Clanricarde, the Earl of Hard- 
wicke, the Earl of Carnarvon, Mr. Disraeli, " Lord John," Mr. 
Gladstone, and Lord Palmerston. — The Indecorum of the British 
Senate. — Giving Mr. Bull " his Papers." — A Terrific Scream by 
the American Eagle. — The Commons in a Twitter, — Her Majes- 
ty's Friendliness to the States 137-153 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. yii 



PART IL— AT HOME. 
CHAPTER I. 

Aaron Burr at Riclimond Hill. — Red Jacket. — General Jackson's 
"Weeper," and General Pierce's Umbrella. — Presidents, Past 
and Future. — A Visit to Franklin Pierce at Rye Beach. — His 
Story about his Nomination. — His Friendship for Nathaniel 
Hawthorne. — Political Chowder. — Pierce as President: One 
Thing to All Men. — Office-seeking and Office-seekers. — A Joke 
of the Secretary of State. — Appointment and DisapjDoint- 
ment. — James Buchanan. — Love's Last Shift. — A Final Inter- 
view 155-174 

CHAPTER II. 

" Sam " Houston, and " Mike " Walsh.— Daniel Webster.— Tyler, 
Fillmore, and Van Burcn. — John Van Bm'cn. — A Pun on Cass's 
Name. — John Van Buren as a Politician . . . 175-184 

CHAPTER III. 

Dickens in Cincinnati. — G. P. R. James. — James and Sir Walter 
Scott. — James's Impressions of Horace Greeley. — The Journey 
to Hell Gate. — James and Sir Hamilton Seymour. — The Sedg- 
■wicks and the Literary Coterie at and near Stockbridge. — A 
Disgusted Idler. — Fanny Kemble in Private. — Melville and 
Holmes. — Twin Authorshii). — Hawthorne's Shyness. — James as 
an Official. — Consul-making. — Anecdotes of Campbell, Hogg, 
and Byron. — " Alexander in the Tent of Darius" . 185-314 

CHAPTER IV. 

Thackeray at the Century Club. — Jenny Lind and Barnum. — 
Public Charity. — Miss Lind and her Persecutors. — Her Detesta- 
tion of Humbug and Abhorrence for Negroes . . 215-220 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

General Scott. — Anecdotes related by him. — His Friendshii) with 
Sir John Harvey. — His Opinion of McClellan, Lee, and Grant. 
— Fitz-Greene Halleck. — Edgar A. Poe, and his Lecture u^Don 
" The Universe."— Rufus W. Griswold and N. P. Willis.— John 
Quincy Adams and Albert Gallatin. — Charles Francis Ad- 
ams and ex-President Monroe.— The "Monroe Letter." — Colo- 
nel James Monroe. — His Experience as "a Friend" . 321-328 

CHAPTER VI. 

Prince Napoleon and the Princess Clotilde in New York. — 
The Prince's Visit to Mr. Benkard's House, and to the Picture- 
Galleries of Mr. Belmont and Mr. Aspinwall. — A Dinner in 
Brooklyn. — He offers to procure Arms for the United States. — 
He visits Lake Superior and the West. — Dinner to him at the 
Union Club. — " Vive la France !" — An Entertainment on board 
the Prince's Yacht 229-337 

CHAPTER YII. 

A Visit to Montreal for the Pui-pose of Inviting the Prince of 
Wales to New York. — An Official Eeception. — Dinner vs. Ball. 
— Lunching with the Prince. — Preparations for the Ball. — Re- 
ception of the Prince at New York. — How he s^jent his Time. 
— The Ball. — He attends Service at Trinity Church. — An Eco- 
nomical Committee 238-349 

CHAPTER Vni. 

^ Howell Cobb, a Secessionist. — An Empty Treasury. — General Dix 
appointed Secretary of the Treasury. — A Loyal Democrat. — Mr. 
Cisco visits Secretaiy Chase. — The Sinews of War. — Negotia- 
tions with the Banks. — The Government again in Difficulties. — 
Replenishing the Treasuiy. — Any Thing for Money. — Confiden- 
tial and Semi-official Correspondence with Washington. — The 



TABLE OP CONTENTS. JX 

Purchase of the Merchants' Exchange Company's Building for 
a Custom-House. — The Great Draft Riot. — The Writer invited 
to Washington as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury . 250-2G1 

CHAPTER IX. 

Mr. Seward. — The Emancipation Proclamation. — ]VIr. Stanton. — 
Mr. Chase's Diary. — Was Mr. Cameron Dismissed ? — General Mc- 
Clellan. — Thurlow Weed Governor of New Yorh. — Mr. Welles. 
— Mr. Chase the Foremost Member of Mr. Lincoln's Cab- 
inet 363-274 

CHAPTER X. 

John D. Van Buren in Washington. — The Difficulties of Taxation. 
— Mistakes of Mr. Chase and of Mr. Pitt. — Mr. Lincoln's Inability 
to appreciate Mr. Chase. — Mr. Chase's Delicacy. — His Presi- 
dential Aspirations. — Scolding Dignitaries. — His Scrupulous- 
ness in signing Warrants. — Mr. Lincoln's Savings. — How a 
State Dinner was Paid for. — Mr. Chase passing Counterfeits of 
his own Currency. — Assaulted in his own DejDartment. — His 
Opinion of General Butler. — Visit to the General at Fortress 
Monroe. — An Incident of the Taylor Campaign. — Mr. Colfax 
and Mr. Washburne Competitors for the Speakership.l^Mr. Hen- 
ry G. Stebbins, a Member of the Committee on Ways and Means. 
— Mr. Wood's AsjDirations for the same Position. — The Swearing 
Treasurer. — The Blood of John Brown. — A Cool Government 
Clerk.— A Pretty Thief.— Frederick Douglass . . 275-295 

CHAPTER XI. 

How Mr. Chase came to leave the Treasury Department. — Can- 
vassing the Senate. — Mr. Chase Resigns. — IVIr. Fessenden is 
appointed Secretary. — Mr. Lincoln Explains. — Mr. Chase is 
Stubborn. — Mr. Chase's Four Resignations. — A Characteristic 

Letter 296-306 

A2 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. Fessenden as Secretary of the Treasury. — Mr. Hartley. — " Tite 
Barnacle " in Wasliington. — Mr. Lincoln's Sectarian Preferences. 
— " A Little Story."— Mr. Lincoln and the Fan- Sex.— Mr. Lin- 
coln's Kindness. — General Nye's Republican Saint. — Greeley as 
Chesterfield. — Greeley walks Seward around the Block. — The 
Foreign Ministers in Washington .... 307-330 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Mr, Lincoln's Assassination; Death -bed Scenes, and Funer- 
al o 331-339 



PART I. 



ABROAD. 



^ 



MEMORIES OF MANY MEN 

AND OF SOME WOMEN. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER I. 

I "WENT abroad for the first time in the spring of the 
year 1843, and remained absent from America until 
the month of December in the year 1845. During the 
intervening period I traveled through all the countries 
of Europe, except Russia, made the tour of the Seven 
Churches in Asia Minor, and ascended the Nile as far 
as the second cataract. I was very young at the time, 
and my experiences were mostly those of an ordinary 
traveler. As I am not writing a book of travels, I do 
not propose giving here any extended account of them. 
I shall limit myself to a slight, sketchy recital of some 
trifling incidents connected with distinguished persons 
whom I happened casually to see. 

Mr. Edwakd Evekett was at that time our Minister 
at the Court of St. James, I was the bearer to him of 
a letter of introduction from Mr. Benjamin F. Bdtlek, 
who had been Attorney-General of the United States 
under Peesident Yan Bueen. I found Mr. Eveeett as 
frigid as an iceberg. His reserve was constitutional. 
He was as polished as his own writings, but ecpally cold. 



14 MEMORIES OF MANY 3£EN. 

To a yomig man just out of college, this sort of reception 
operated like a wet blanket. After my first call, I never 
ventured upon him again. I feared taking cold. 

I had the good fortune to see the famous Duke of 
Wellington several times on horseback, going to or re- 
turning from the Horse Guards, and once in the House 
of Lords. He was very feeble, and very bowed and 
bent, and much anxiety was felt on account of his per- 
sistent habit of riding instead of driving ; but the old 
warrior was determined to back his steed as long as he 
possessed the strength to mount him. Every man re- 
moved his hat on meeting the Duke, and he saluted all 
in turn with a quick military movement of his forefinger 
to his own. 

He was then Commander-in-chief. I saw him in the 
House of Lords, and heard him speak. The Peers then 
occupied their old apartment in Westminster Hall; it 
was very small, and there was scant room for visitors, 
and no seats at all for them. When the Duke rose to 
speak, his tones were so low as to be almost inaudible to 
me. He hemmed and hawed, after the English manner, 
and there were painfully long pauses between his sen- 
tences. To one who could only see and not hear, it was 
a disajipointing exhibition. 

At this time there M^ere iron shutters upon the front 
of Apsley House, his town residence, which were always 
kept closed. This was a reminder of ingratitude to the 
populace, who had stoned his windows on account of his 
opposition to the Reform Bill. The attack might have 
had serious consequences had it not been for the gallant 
interference of Count d'Oksay, who, although a Frencli- 
inan, succeeded in shaming the mob. 



KINGS, ORANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 15 

Our Minister to France at that period was Mr. Wm. 
R. King, of Alabama, afterward Yiee - President of the 
United States, who, with his accomplished niece, Mrs. 
Ellis, dispensed charming hospitality at the Legation. 
Mr. King had brought with him from home a negro, 
whom he made the major-domo of liis household, and 
who acquired a surprising ascendency over the other 
servants and the tradespeople who supplied the family. 
He was strictly honest himself, and would not permit 
others to peculate ; and this is a terrible hardship to the 
underlings of a Parisian establishment. He accompa- 
nied his master every where. He always coupled his 
own name with that of Mr, King, and constantly em- 
ployed the expression, " Me and the Minister." Mr. King 
was a tall, stiff, stately Southerner, and a dignified and 
high-toned gentleman. 

In Paris I attended several meetings of the Chamber 
of Deputies, and one of the House of Peers. I saw both 
M. GuizoT and M. Thieks, and heard the former speak. 
I recollect one thing he said which raised a terrific storm 
of indignation — "La France a besoin de se sentir gou- 
vernee !" (France requires to feel herself governed !) 

I never saw the king, Louis Philippe ; but upon dif- 
ferent occasions I saw three of his sons, who are still 
living. I attended one day in the summer of the year 
1843 the races in the Champ de Mars. The Due de 
Nemouks was then the leading patron of the turf in 
France, and he had a private stand upon the course. 
The carriage in which I came was stationed so far off 
that, although I could make out that this stand was filled 
with people, I was unable to distinguish any faces. 
After the first i-ace was over, I aliglited from the vehicle. 



IQ MEMORIES OF 31 ANT MEN. 

intending to walk across the course and have a look at 
the Prince, who I w^as informed was one of the party. 
When I got to the stand it was empty, and I supposed 
that he had gone home. Lighting a cigar, 1 turned back 
until I reached the centre of the course, where I stood 
some time, watching what was going on. Near me was 
a young man, who did not particularly attract my at- 
tention, in conversation with an older one. I only no- 
ticed that he wore very ill-fitting clothes, and had a very 
decided lisp in his speech. After a while he took a case 
from his pocket, and, selecting a cigar, asked me for a 
light. A few minutes later an officer approached him, 
bareheaded, and asked when Monseigneur would have 
his guard. I then knew that the young man was the 

Dec DE l^EMOUKS. 

The Due d'Aumale I saw the next year, when he re- 
turned from the w\ar in Algeria. He made a triumphal 
entry into Paris at the head of his regiment, if I recol- 
lect aright, the Seventeenth Light Infantry, and marched 
down the Avenue of the Champs Elysees. lie was on 
foot ; his uniform was very seedy, and his boots covered 
with mud. The regiment had camped outside the walls 
the night before in order to make its entrance in the 
day-time, and it w^as said that the Prince, before starting 
upon the march, had for effect bedabbled his boots in a 
gutter. 

The Due DE MoNTPENSiEK, who was then not much 
more than a boy, I saw at a monster concert in the 
Champs Elysees. Among the pieces performed was the 
chorus from the opera of Charles VI., ^^ Jamais V Anglais 
ne regnera en FranceP'' (Never shall the English reign 
in France !) Peeling between the two nations was run- 



KINGS, GBANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 17 

ning high at that time, and the applause was tremendous. 
The Prince, by his enthusiastic clapping, split his gloves. 
His unlucky marriage with the sister of the Queen of 
Spain was one of the principal causes which led to the 
hurling of his father from the throne. 

I twice saw the late King of Holland at the Hasrue, 
He was reputed the most daring horseman in Europe ; 
and at the breaking out of the revolution which re- 
sulted in the separation of Belgium from Holland, he 
performed the feat of riding from Bnissels to the Hague 
in a single day. The first time that I saw him was upon 
a Sunday afternoon, when I was walking, accompanied 
by a valet de jplace^ on an almost deserted street on the 
outskirts of the town. Presently there came in view a 
horse, dashing headlong in our direction ; and, turning 
in alarm to my companion, I exclaimed, " There is a 
runaway !" " It is the King," he replied, and in a mo- 
ment his Majesty passed us at the same furious gait. He 
had a foraging cap upon his head and a cigar in his 
mouth, and, without in the least relaxing his speed, he 
bowed and touched his cap. Behind him, at a long dis- 
tance, came two panting and blowing aids, and behind 
them again two Court carriages. They were all return- 
ing from a country palace where they had been dining. 
It was said that no aid to the King could stand the serv- 
ice more than two or three years at the utmost, and the 
position was not at all in request. 

A few days afterward I was loitering in the Koyal 
Picture-gallery attached to the Palace. Besides myself 
there happened to be nobody there but a French artist, 
who was making a very creditable copy of an important 
picture. Soon I entered into conversation with this 



18 3IEM0ItIES OF MANY HEX. 

gentleman, and while I was so engaged, a door opened 
and the King walked briskly in. Instead of crossing 
the room, as we supposed it his intention to do, he came 
directly to ns, and began to compliment the artist npon 
his picture, lie then talked to me for a long time, 
and tendered me many civilities. At length, offering 
ns each a cigar, he withdrew as he had entered. On 
one side of the gallery there stood, npon a pedestal, 
stuffed, the white horse which the King, then Pkince of 
Okange, had ridden at Waterloo. 

He was a fearful spendthrift. His father was not 
only a king, bnt also the most successful merchant and 
speculator in Enrope, and upon his death he left an enor- 
mous fortune to his sou. The latter managed not only to 
squander the whole of it in a reign of abont seven years, 
but also to accumulate debts, whicii compelled the sale, 
after his death, of his pictures and other effects. He 
was a very ill-favored man, although the Orange family 
is noted as an uncommonly fine race. The King was the 
Grant of his day in respect of smoking. He was ne^'er 
without a cigar. He even smoked at the opera. When 
he did this, he occupied a latticed proscenium box, where 
you could not see him, but whence the odor of the to- 
bacco emerged and impregnated the entire atmosphere 
of the house. He was a great linguist, and otherwise ac- 
complished ; but his reputation as a man was scandalous, 
and he made the Hao-ue durino; his reio-n the rendezvous 
of some of the vilest characters in Europe. 

I was well accredited to Mr. Henry Wiieaton, our 
Minister at Berlin, and the distinguished wi'iter upon in- 
ternational law. Upon my arrival I sent my letter with 
my card to the Legation, and the next day the Minister 



KINOS, GRANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS. 19 

called upon me, and, not finding me within, left for me 
my own card, with " Mr. Wheaton for " written over my 
name. It was surprising that such a solecism in manners 
should be committed by a diplomatist of Mr. Wheaton's 
experience. Of course, no offense was intended ; but I 
did not return the call. 

The King of Prussia, elder brother to the present 
Emperor of Germany, I saw once at Potsdam, as he w^as 
entering his carriage. He was a rough, coarse, red- 
faced German, and w^ore an immense military cloak of 
Prussian gray. He afterward became 'mad, or rather 
imbecile — from an excessive addiction to champagne, it 
was said. The present Eaipeeor, then Crown Prince, I 
accidentally met one day upon a by-way in Switzerland. 
I had left the vettura in which I was traveling to walk 
to a water-fall, only accessible to pedestrians. I overtook 
several Germans, with whom I entered into conversation. 
One of them, who seemed to be the leader of the party, 
was particularly polite to me. When we again reached 
the highway, I saw, drawn up on the side of the road, 
two handsome traveling carriages, with two fourgons, 
or luggage-vans, behind them, and I thus became aware 
that my chance companions were people of consequence. 
In the foremost of the carriages were two ladies, and the 
chief personage, after an exchange of compliments with 
me, said that he would be pleased to present me to his 
wife before we separated. Accordingly I handed him 
my card, and he presented me to the " Ceown Peestcess 
OF Peussia." He very cordially invited me to again 
visit Berlin, assuring me that it would afford him pleas- 
ure to be of service to me there. We spoke French to- 
gether. Had I understood German, which I did not, I 



20 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

might perhaps have learned earher in our interview the 
rank of my fellow-traveler. 

At Vienna, I saw the Empekor Ferdinand, of Austria, 
a man of low stature and defective intelligence, with tlie 
overhanging under-lip of the Hapsburgs; and the Em- 
press, an unusually tall woman, who looked like a giant- 
ess by the side of her diminutive husband. The Arch- 
duchess Sophia, mother to the present Emperor (who 
succeeded upon the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand), 
was called in those days the most beautiful woman in 
Austria. Our Charge d' Affaires in Vienna was Mr. Jeni- 
fer, of Maryland. He was an old dandy and beau, and 
he had pictures of the lovely Archduchess hung in every 
room of his house. I shall never forget a dinner at 
which he produced real Johannisberger of the highest 
grade, presented to him by Prince Metternich, and 
other wines of equal fame, all the gifts of titled and 
distinguished friends. 

I saw the great Archduke Charles, the most distin- 
guished adversary of the first Napoleon next to the Duke 
OF Wellington, at Baden, near Vienna. He was a tall, 
slender old man, with the unmistakable features of his 
imperial house, and was walking in the public garden, 
with his daughter leaning upon his arm, but otherwise 
unattended. He was himself in plain citizen's dress, 
and so simple a costume as that worn by the Arch- 
duchess w^ould disgust a Fifth Avenue belle. Hats were 
respectfully doffed to them, but otherwise they moved 
among the crowd like any one else. And so it is all 
over the Continent of Europe, but not so in England, un- 
less a great change has occurred there. Members of im- 
perial and royal families are accustomed to walk the 



KINGS, GRANDEES, AND EMBASSADORS 21 

streets and frequent public places very much as every 
body else does. Fancy Queen Victoria taking a prome- 
nade with the Peince of Wales on Bond Street ! 

I frequently saw the Gkand-duke of Tuscany in Flor- 
ence. He w^as an Austrian Prince, and a plain, farmer- 
looking person, with a sailor's roll in his gait. 

The King of Sardinia at that time was Charles Al- 
bert, the father of Victor Emmanuel, the present King 
of Italy. Unlike his son, he was of very lofty stature, 
overtopping most of his subjects by a head. The angle 
of his forehead and nose was unusually acute, and his 
face altogether a very peculiar one. 

I came upon a very singular personage during my 
visit to Turin. I was one day sitting alone in the dining- 
room of my hotel, waiting for my dinner to be served. 
There were a great many ladies and gentlemen in the 
room at the same time, either dining or ex23ecting to 
dine. Presently there entered a very tall young man,* 
dressed, or rather overdressed, in the most outre Paris 
fashion, who seated himself at a round table, hitherto 
unoccupied, which stood between two windows which 
opened upon the street. His first act was to roll up a 
napkin into a ball, and throw it at the head of a waiter 
in a distant part of the room, for the purpose of attract- 
ing his attention. Shortly afterward he was joined by 
two young ofiicers in uniform, and I observed a defer- 
ence in their manner toward him which strangely com- 
ported with his ill-bred conduct. Every few minutes he 
would spring from his seat, rush to one of the windows, 
shout to some passer-by at the top of his voice, and wave 
a napkin as if in salutation. All the time he talked so 
loud as to drown all other conversation in the room. I 



22 31EM0RIES OF ifANY MEX. 

noticed tliat the ladies smiled beliind their fans ; but nei- 
ther their gentlemen companions nor the people of the 
hotel seemed to pay any attention to his eccentricities. 
After dinner I went for a walk to the public promenade. 
I had been sauntering about for some time, when I saw 
approaching an English drag drawn by four magnificent 
horses. In the inside were three military gentlemen, 
and lying upon the roof at full length, his long legs 
dangling over on the one side, and his head extended be- 
yond the other, was the strange young man whom I had 
seen at dinner. There was a crowd of pedestrians, and 
as the drag rolled on he kissed his hand and fluttered a 
pocket-handkerchief at the ladies. I knew nobody there, 
and I did not venture to ask who he was. But after I 
had returned to the hotel, I went straight to the proprietor 
and inquired about him. He informed me that he was 
the Heeeditaky Gkand-duke of Lucca, and nephew to 
• Chaeles Albeet, to whose pious care his father had in- 
trusted him. The King at first gave him apartments 
in the royal palace, but he conducted himself so outra- 
geously that it soon became necessary to send him adrift. 
He was the scandal of all decent people in Turin. He 
had been turned out of many of the best houses for 
his shameful behavior. He had ever so many horses 
of his own, but he seldom drove any but hired ones. He 
would sometimes come to the hotel at noon, and order a 
dinner for forty, to be ready at six o'clock. He was 
both a mountebank and a blackguard. 

Some years later this same harlequin made a visit to 
the Queen of Spain at Madrid. The local newspapers 
were full of accounts of his eccentricities. He would 
never descend the palace stairs by walking down, like 



KINGS, GRANDEES, AND E2IBASSAD0RS. 23 

other mortals, but always slid down the baluster, like an 
untamed school-boy. 

Still later, and after lie had become Gkand-duke, he 
was secretly assassinated in his capital. The matter was 
never thoroughly elucidated to the public, but it was 
supposed that the blow was dealt by the hand of one 
whom he had grossly wronged. 

I went from Marseilles to Civita Vecchia in a French 
steamer. There was a full complement of cabin passen- 
gers from all countries, besides a band of Catalonian peas- 
ants in the steerage, who were making a pilgrimage to 
Rome. At dinner, on the first day out, I chanced to be 
seated next but one to a middle-aged Birmingham man, 
who had been ordered to Italy by his physician. . I had 
fallen into a chance conversation earlier in the day with 
this person, and from his robust appearance should not 
have taken him for an invalid. He had never before 
been out of England, and his mind was full of all sorts 
of insular prejudices. 

Nearly opposite to me at table sat a quiet person, 
whose air, complexion, dress, and manners were those 
of an English gentleman. As soon as the soup was 
served,"Brummagem" began to talk in a loud voice, for 
the benefit, apparently, of all the company. He ex- 
pi-essed in the most ex cathedra manner his dogmatic 
opinions upon every subject that presented itself to his 
mind. Finally he slid to the most dangerous of all top- 
ics, especially in such a place, the relative merits, or 
rather demerits, of the different nationalities. He spoke 
in the freest terms of denunciation of French, Germans, 
and Italians, and wound up, by way of climax, with the 
remark that of all blackguards in the world tlie Span- 



24 MEMORIES OF 3IANY 3IEJV. 

iards were the greatest ! Pie had hardly uttered these 
words, before, from the liand of the quiet gentleman op- 
posite, there came a bottle of claret, with such force that 
it not only struck "Brummagem" in the breast, but hurled 
him from his seat. The bottle broke, the blood -red 
liquid saturated his person and his clothing, and there 
ensued a scene of dire confusion. His injuries were, 
however, but trifling, and that evening, instead of seek- 
ing redress from him, he apologized to his assailant, who 
turned out to be the Spanish Duke d'Ossuna. The 
Duke, who had been educated in England, and resided 
there many years, was eti route for I^aples, of which his 
ancestors had been viceroys, and where his family still 
had large possessions. 

All the frequenters of the Cafe de Paris thirty years 
ago, at that time the most fashionable restaurant in the 
French capital, will recollect the formal and eccentric 
Maequis de St. Jago, who some years later succeeded to 
the Dukedom of Ossuna. It is still said of that princely 
family in Spain, that the possessor of the title can travel 
from Madrid to Naples by land, and sleep in his own 
house every night. 

I saw good old Pope Geegoey XVI. in Pome — the 
venerable, simple-minded Dominican monk. I had also 
the advantage of a long interview with Caedinal Mez- 
zoFANTi, the greatest linguist of modern times. He was 
short in stature, and extremely coarse in appearance, the 
last person in the world whom one would have picked 
out as an eminent scholar. The College of Cardinals 
was composed of some of the noblest-looking men in 
Europe ; and it was disappointing to see one of the most 
distinecuished of their number fall far short of the aver- 



DICKENS AND THE CARNIVAL. 25 

age good looks of his order. Some of the Roman no- 
bility were strange-looking old fossils. I shall never for- 
get old Pkince Coksini, with his enormous thumb-ring 
and dirty finger-nails. 

I met CiiAKLES Dickens in Rome the winter that I 
was there. I felt very ill-disposed toward him at that 
time, as did most of my countrymen, on account of his 
"American ISTotes," then recently published. We met, 
as sight-seers do in Rome, every where. I particularly 
recall the circumstance that at one of the most imposing 
ceremonies at Saint Peter's, during holy week, I kept 
my eye upon Mr. Dickens, w^ho was standing listlessly 
leaning against a column, apparently paying no atten- 
tion whatever to what was going on ; and yet, in his 
book on Rome, he gives a most minute and graphic de- 
scription of that very ceremony. His powers of rapid 
absorption and of accurate retention must have exceeded 
those of other men. 

During the carnival, I formed one of a party of twelve, 
composed of Leutze and other artists, American and 
French, who, travestied in the costume of the !N^eapolitan 
Punchinello, and armed with twelve hundred pounds of 
confetti in sacks, drove up and down the Corso in an open 
char-d-hanc, warring and being warred upon. Our first 
serious encounter was with the members of the French 
Embassy, who, less numerous than ourselves, were rash 
enough to attack us. Them we quickly subdued ; and 
then, upon their proposal, w^e entered into a treaty with 
them of offensive and defensive alliance, it being stipu- 
lated, among other things, that they were all the time to 
follow in our wake. It was also agreed that our united 
forces should bear down upon any person who was 

B 



26 MEMOEIES OF MANY MEN. 

obnoxious to any one of ns. Presently Mr. Dickens's 
carriage came along, descending the narrow street on 
one side as we ascended it on tlie other. Mrs. Dickens 
and others were inside. Mr, Dickens, in a blouse, and 
with a wire screen before his face, was in tlie rumble. 
Just as he got opposite, there was a stoppage in both 
lines. I immediately gave the word for attack, and the 
weight of the avalanche of confetti tliat fell upon that 
devoted head nobody could calculate. Dickens stood it 
as long as he could, but was finally compelled to conceal 
his head beneath the seat of the rumble. We were 
masked, and, of course, unrecognizable. It was fools' 
play at best, but all the world turns fool at a Roman 
carnival. 

' King Boimba, of Naples, Avas a first-class specimen of 
disreputable royalty. He was obese, vulgar, and filtliy 
to the eye, and was said to be the most ill-bred man in 
Europe, but of this I had no personal opportunity to form 
an opinion. Among other stories that were circulated 
about him was the following : It was said that soon after 
his second marriage, a court ball was given at the Palace 
in honor of the event. The Queen had been dancing, 
and the King pretended to conduct her to a chair ; but 
just as she was about sitting down, he withdrew it, so that 
she came in confusion to the floor. In her mortification, 
she turned upon him and said, " When I married you, I 
supposed that I was marrying a king, whereas I find that 
I have married a lazzarone !" Whereupon, by way of 
climax, he slapped her face before the whole assembly ! 
One expects to find a king at least a gentleman, but this 
is not the fact with all of them. 

I once saw the Sultan Abdul Medjid on horseback 



MEHEMET ALL 



27 



as he was going, on a Friday, from the Seraglio to the 
Mosque of Saint Sophia. His dress was European, even to 
the patent-leather boots, except that he wore a red Turk- 
ish fez upon his head. He was about thirty at the time, 
but so enfeebled by excesses that he had to be lifted on 
and off his horse. His features were regular and hand- 
some, his complexion pale, his eyes, hair, and beard jet 
black. He looked like an Italian (his mother was one), 
and almost like a gentleman. 

In Cairo I often saw old Meheisiet Alt, who, although 
he looked like a boor, was every inch a king. He was 
very aged and decrepit, but, like the Duke of Welling- 
ton, would go on horseback. A party of us, mounted 
on donkeys, was one day going to Boulac, the port of 
Cairo. Among us there was a very charming and beau- 
tiful young English lady, on her way home with her 
husband from India. We happened, shortly after leav- 
ing Cairo, to meet the old Pasha, followed by a suite. 
He looked all over our party, and then motioned us with 
his hand to stop. When we had done so, he called some 
of his people to assist him to dismount. When he reached 
the ground, he toddled up to the English lad}^, kissed her 
upon the cheek with the utmost gravity, to her equal 
amazement and confusion, and then, with aid, remoimted 
his steed. As we passed on, he benignantly kissed his 
hand to the fair Islander, and touched his fez to the rest 
of us. I also saw in Cairo his two sons, Ibeahesi Pasha, 
the conqueror of Syria, and Abbas Pasha, then Gover- 
nor of Cairo, and afterward Yiceroy of Egypt. Tlie 
latter was a very brutal-looking prince, and possessed 
but little of the ability of his father and his brother. 

I have mentioned that I made the ascent of the Kile. 



28 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

The river was not navigable quite so far as the second 
cataract, and we were compelled to strand our boat 
about a mile and a half before reaching it, and make 
the rest of the distance on foot across the desert. Just 
before we arrived at the place of disembarkment, we no- 
ticed another boat, flying the Prussian flag, immediately 
ahead of us, the people from which had just come ashore. 
Seeing us approaching, they waited for us to land. When 
we did so, mutual salutations passed, and we started to- 
gether to walk to the place of our ultimate destination 
in that country. Gradually we paired off into couples, 
and there fell to my companionship a stout, middle-aged 
German, to whom walking was such an effort that we 
soon dropped behind all the others of the party. As he 
was getting very much blowed, and as I was younger 
and more active than he, he asked me for my arm, and 
so we trudged on together, talking and laughing, until 
we reached the sandstone rock which projects over the 
cataract, the Ultima Thule of our journey, and upon which 
it was the custom of adventurous travelers to cut their 
names in memorial of their visit. We had provided 
ourselves with knives for the purpose, and when we two 
arrived, all the others were already busily engaged in 
carving their names upon the surface of the stone. My 
fat friend, to whom climbing was an impossibility, seated 
himself at the base, while I ascended to a more elevated 
position. After finishing my work, I came down again 
and looked at his inscription. He was just completing 
the last letters of " Pkinz ALBKEcnT von Pkeussen." I 
bowed to him, and told him that I had not been aware 
of the rank of my companion. He laughed, and said 
that when he left Cairo he had given orders that all rec- 



A DISCARDED SULTANA. 29 

ognition of his rank should be dropped. He could see 
110 sense in class distinction in a barbarous land. I found 
him a downright sensible fellow, and we jogged back to- 
getlier to our respective boats. That evening we supped 
with him and his companions, and the next morning they 
breakfasted with us, our cooks vying with each other to 
produce the most sumptuous feast. We then parted, 
dropped into the rapid current, and never met again. 

On our voyage up the river we stopped, among other 
places, at Esueh, for the purpose of visiting the ruins of 
the temple of that name. "We found established there a 
colony of Almes, or dancing girls, at the head of which 
was Sofia, a discarded wife of Abbas Pasha. She was 
a Circassian, and reputed to be the handsomest woman 
in the East. I have certainly never seen a more perfect 
specimen of female beauty in any other part of the world. 
Her husband had detected her several years before talk- 
ing to a Greek at the corner of the street. For this of- 
fense he condemned her to be put into a sack and thrown 
into the Xile. But the European consuls interfered to 
save her, and induced him to commute the barbarous 
punishment into that of perpetual banishment to this 
place, situated a thousand miles distant from Cairo. An- 
nually, and upon the anniversary of her arrival there, she 
addressed a letter to the Pasha, begging that she should be 
permitted to return. But to none of these appeals did 
she ever receive a reply. I have in my possession a very 
pleasing picture of her in colored crayons, taken by Mr. 
Campbell, an artist, and nephew to Campbell the poet, 
who accompanied us upon our expedition. When our 
departing boat drifted out into the stream as we left 
Esneh, we saw her, in her floating, silken robes, standing, 



30 ULElfORIES OF MANY MEN. 

after the Scriptural manner, npon lier " house-top," and 
waving us an adieu. She had discarded the Eastern 
fashion of veiling the face. Poor creature ! she had 
nothing to gain by adliering to it. I saw some pretty 
Georgian slave girls in Cairo and in Constantinople ; but 
none of them were to be compared with ]ier for perfec- 
tion of face and of form, and for attractiveness of man- 
ner. She was worthy to be the heroine of one of Tom 
Moore's Eastern tales. 

I happened to be in Athens just after the Revolution 
of February, 1S44, and while there was a large foreign 
fleet assembled in the bay of the Pirasus, and a Constitu- 
ent Parliament in session in the town. Many of the 
members of this Parliament were robber chieftains from 
the mountains, and superb-looking fellows. ISTot one half 
of them could read or write. The President was Lord 
Byron's Prince Maveocoedato — a stout, intelligent-look- 
ing person. The handsomest woman in Atliens was the 
Queen — Oxno's wife — and the next handsomest, Miss 
BoTZABis, her first maid of honor, and daughter to Ilal- 
leck's Marco Botzaeis — not Botzaeis, with the accent 
upon the a, as he incorrectly places it. 

When I was in Madrid, Mr. Washington Ieving, whom 
I had known since I was a boy, represented our govei-n- 
ment at the Spanish Court. I had just come up from 
Andalusia, and had spent more than a week in Granada, 
devoting the greater part of the time to the Alhambi-a, 
which was then being restored. I was surprised to learn 
from Mr. Irving that since he had arrived in Spain in a 
diplomatic capacity he had never once revisited the sub- 
ject of one of his earliest and greatest literary triumphs. 
However, he seemed to take great interest in my account 



mvmO AND DICKEXS. 31 

of the condition of tlie old Moorish palace, and of what 
bad become of those -who lived there when be wrote 
about it. His health was not very good, and he suffered 
from that overpowering propensity to sleep so common to 
overtaxed brains. I never saw Mr. Irving betray any 
excitement but once in my life, and that was upon an oc- 
casion when I dined with him in Madrid. The name of 
Dickens happened to be introduced, and he became very 
lieated in telling me about his relations with that author. 
Finally he could no longer contain himself, and, jumping 
from his seat, he walked up and down the floor in great 
apparent agitation, lie told me that he had correspond- 
ed with Dickens long before they ever met. That both 
from his writings and his letters he had formed the 
highest conception of his personal character. That un- 
der these circumstances Dickens arrived at New York, 
and he, Irving, called upon him at his hotel. That im- 
mediately after sending in his card he was invited to 
Mr. Dickens's pai'lor, and, as he entered the room, that 
gentleman met him, napkin in hand. He had been 
dining, and the table was covered with a vulgar pro- 
fusion of food, and the table-cloth was stained with gravy 
and wine. Wringing his hand, Dickens's first salutation 
was, " Irving, I am delighted to see you ! What will 
you drink, a mint julep or a gin cocktail V "■ The idea 
of inviting me to drink juleps and cocktails!" naively 
exclaimed Mr. Irving. He found Dickens outrageously 
vulgar — in dress, manners, and mind. And none of us 
young people were then more incensed against him for 
his "American Kotes" and "Martin Chuzzlewit" than 
was the irentle Goldsmith of American literature. 



CHAPTER II. 

IIST the spring of the year 1848 I made a flying trip to 
Europe for the benefit of my liealth ; a trip entirely 
impremeditated three hours before it was undertaken. I 
was sitting at the breakfast-table at nine o'clock in the 
morning, feeling very ill from the effects of overworlc, 
when one present suggested that I should do well to make 
a break, and take a run across the Atlantic. By twelve 
o'clock, noon, of the same day, I was steaming down New 
York harbor on board of a Cunarder, bound for Liver- 
pool. "We had a delightful passage, to which the agree- 
ableness of my fellow-passengers largely contributed. 
One of the most pleasing and entertaining of them was 
Pkince LrciEN Murat, next to whom I accidentally 
happened to occupy a seat at table. He was going to 
France, to derive what advantage he could from the rev- 
olution of the previous February. I found him a most 
good-humored, jovial companion, possessing withal a good 
deal of a certain kind of wit and shrewdness. He was 
extremely careless about his person, a voracious feeder, 
and the most formidable snorer I ever met. Unfortu- 
nately for me, his state-room was directly opposite mine, 
and, as he always slept with his door open, I enjoyed the 
full benefit of the terrific noises he made in his sleep. 
More than once, after lying awake for hours, I used in 
sheer desperation to hurl my boots at his berth, which 
rather forcible protest he always took very amiably. His 



PRINCE LUCIEN MUEAT. g3 

proportions were already of the Daniel Lambert order, 
but tliey increased considerably afterward. The last 
time I saw him was in the year 1855, at Paris. He was 
then in full uniform, and covered with orders and dec- 
orations ; and the brilliancy of his attire, united to the 
prodigiousness of his person, made him a sight to behold. 
What changes his fortunes have undergone. To be ele- 
vated from a sort of Xew Jersey squatter to be a mem- 
ber of the imperial family of France, with at one time a 
squint at the throne of Naples, again to sink to the posi- 
tion of an offshoot of an outcast dj-nasty ! 

The Prince used to wear upon his head a very old, 
dirty, and dilapidated soft felt hat, which in its best es- 
tate could hardly have been ornamental. Aj)ropos of 
this hat, he told me that, before he left home, his wife, 
who remained in this country to await events, insisted 
that he should procure a proper black hat as soon as he 
reached town ; that unless he would promise to do so, 
she declined to accompany him here and see him off. 
That he told her he could not afford the extravagance, 
and, if she imposed so unreasonable a condition upon 
giving him her company to Xew York, she might stay in 
New Jersey, He had with him the famous white plume 
which used to distinguish his father upon the field of 
battle, or rather tiie wdialebone remains of it, the feath- 
ers having long ago fallen victims to time and the moths. 

He had acquired a great and somewhat unenviable 
reputation in Kew Jersey as a horse-jockey. It was said 
that he would start off from home for a journey upon 
the back of a sorry Eosinante, and return, after an ab- 
sence of several weeks, driving a stylish pair of hoi'ses 
before an elegant carriage ; the whole being the result 

B2 



34 MEMORIES OF IfANY MEN. 

of a series of successful svxtjys. He possessed a great 
natural taste for meclianics, and, from his conversation, 
seemed to consider Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, the great- 
est genius of the age. 

I was very much amused with a conversation I had 
with him one afternoon about his uncle, Joseph Bona- 
parte. I v\'ell remembered the ex-king, for as a child 
I had spent several years as a boarder at the school of 
the brotliers Peugnet, in New York, distinguished offi- 
cers of the Grand Army, at whose house Joseph was a 
frequent Sunday visitor. I will try to repeat what the 
Prince said, as nearly as I can recollect it, in his own 
words. 

"My Uncle Joseph was a very estimable man, with 
one great weakness — his excessive and ridiculous affec- 
tation of philosophy and martyrdom. He had been King 
of Spain ; and yet he had become resigned to live in 
obscurity in a Republic ! He used to bore me to deatli 
witli this nonsense, until one day I lost my patience and 
almost my temper. ' I am weary of these absurd pre- 
tensions,' I said to him. ' You are not half the philoso- 
pher I am. Compare for a moment our respective fates. 
You were born a miserable Corsican peasant. You liap- 
pened to have a brother who possessed more brains than 
are frequently allotted to mankind. He grasped the 
sceptre of the world, and elevated you to the rank of a 
sovereign. You had not a very quiet time of it in your 
exalted position, it is true, and 3'ou were soon compelled 
to descend from it. But you came to the ground un- 
harmed — with not a feather ruffled ; and while your il- 
lustrious brother was completing his destiny on a barren 
rock in the midst of a distant ocean, you retired in safety 



PRINCE LUCIEN MUEAT. 35 

to this cliarming place, where you are living like a prince, 
surrounded by all the refinements of life, with the com- 
fortable income of sixty thousand dollars per annum. I, 
on the contrary, was born upon the steps of a throne. 
My father was shot in Italy ; I was condemned to a like 
fate at Gibraltar ; I escaped with extreme difficulty, and 
with nothing but my life ; I got to America, and have 
been ever since a poor New Jersey farmer. And I take 
things as they come, without even imagining that I have 
cause for complaint. To say nothing of martyrdom, I 
am a hundred times more a philosopher than you are.' " 
We arrived at Liverpool on a Sunday — the very day 
on which the election for members of the Legislative 
Assembly was to take place in France. Immediately 
after landing, the Prince and I went together to the 
Adelphi Hotel, and there learned that, as luck would 
have it, the election had been postponed one week. The 
Prince, whose elder brother Acuille had died in Florida 
some years before, and who was consequently the head 
of the family, believed that if he could reach his father's 
department in time, he would be sure to be elected. He 
accordingly started at once for London, crossed the Chan- 
nel, hastened down to his father's native town, and an- 
nounced himself a candidate. Other arrangements had 
been made, and other candidates were already in the 
field ; but the name of Mukat operated as a spell, and 
he overcame all opposition, and was triumphantly return- 
ed. Since then, and so long as the Empire lasted, his 
fortunes constantly tended upward, with the slight draw- 
back, however, that he was always hopelessly in debt. I 
called upon him in Paris in 1S55. He was not in town ; 
but a few days later he sent an aid to rac to invite me 



36 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

to Ills chateau at Biizenval, near liueil. Unfortunatelj 
for me, my engagements at the time would not permit 
me to accept this invitation. I subsequently saw him 
once, as I have intimated, at a public ceremony, but had 
no opportunity of speaking to him. 

It was early in April when I reached England, after 
the voyage to which I have referred. I think that the 
most charming weather I have ever known in any part 
of the woi'ld I have found in the British Islands during 
the months of April, May, and June — particularly the two 
latter. N^othing can be more strongly contrasted than 
the London of that period of the year and the London 
of November. In the month of June particularly, actual 
night is there reduced to a duration of not more than 
three or four hours, twilight extending into midnight, 
and dawn dispelling the brief darkness between three 
and four o'clock in the morning. 

In my opinion the English climate is greatly misap- 
preciated by foreigners. The sun is not always obscured 
by fogs, as many hasty tourists, judging by their excep- 
tional experience, assert. I am confident that nowhere 
else can out-door exercise be taken with enjoyment so 
many days of the year and so many hours of the day as 
in England. One has always sensations of physical com- 
fort there which one never experiences any wliere else. 
This is undoubtedly attributable to the moisture with 
which the atmosphere is impregnated, and which exer- 
cises a most soothing influence upon the nervous sj^stem. 
Here the dryness of the air keeps us constantly strung 
up above concert pitch. We are all the time under the 
influence of an artificial stimulus. Our candles burn at 
both ends. Many of our national peculiarities, botli phys- 



SANDERS AND SOMERSET. 37 

ical and moral, are attributable to tliis. The reader will 
please excuse the foregoing deviation from my crooked 
lane of narrative. 

Among my other fellow-passengers was the late Geoege 
IST. Sanders, then of Kentucky, going abroad for the first 
time with the object of negotiating a contract with the 
French Government for the sale of a large stock of Colt's 
revolving pistols. When I first noticed Mr. Sanders 
walking upon the deck of the steam-ship, clad in a suit 
of light gray homespun, and with a shapeless fur cap 
upon his head, his costume, coupled with his features of 
the Southern Kussian type, led me to mistake him 
for a Kalmuck Tartar. I soon came to know him 
well, and thus began an intimacy which lasted, with 
some interruptions, until his death in New York last 
August. Another passenger was Geokge W. Kendall, 
editor of The New Orleans Picayune^ and then a sheep 
farmer in Texas, the forerunner of the Aetemus Waeds 
and the Mi\jjk Twains who have since made American 
humor known as a national characteristic. Mr. Kendall 
w^as going to Paris to procure illustrations for a book 
which he had just completed upon the Mexican "War. 

As I have already mentioned, we arrived at Liverpool 
on Sunday. On the next (Monday) afternoon, Sandees, 
Kendall, and myself started by the evening express 
train for London. As we were all smokers, we desired 
to obtain a carriage where we could enjoy our weeds 
w^ithout interruption. On all the European railways, ex- 
cept in Germany, there are regulations prohibiting smok- 
ing, but their violation is ahvays connived at by the 
guard (for a consideration), provided that no occupant 
of the same carriage objects. Tlic first-class carriages 



38 MEMORIES OF MAST MEX. 

contain but six seats, and hence it is not always diiiicult 
to make up a unanimous party. In the present instance 
we feed the official in advance for the purpose of secur- 
ing a place all to ourselves. Just as he was unlocking 
the door of a hitherto unoccupied carriage for us to entei', 
an elderly Englishman, whose high breeding was mani- 
fest, and who had lost one arm, came up, and remarking 
that he did not think he could be mistaken in taking us 
for Americans, inquired if we had any objection to his 
joining our party, as he inferred from the cigars already 
in our mouths that we proposed to smoke. Of course 
we readily assented, and this was the commencement of 
one of the most agreeable journeys I ever made by rail. 
Our accidental companion turned out to be Loed Fitzeot 
SoMEESET, afterward Loed Eaglan. In his capacity of 
chief of staff to the Duke of Wellixgtox, he had been 
on a special mission to some of the great manufacturing 
towns to watch the movements of the disaffected Chart- 
ists, from whom a formidable demonstration was expect- 
ed in London upon the occasion of the presentation of 
tlieir monster petition to the House of Commons, which 
was to take place in the course of a few days. It will 
be remembered that this eclio of the Paris revolution of 
tlie previous February was looked forward to through- 
out England, by the orderly classes, with great aj^pre- 
liension. 

AYe arrived at London in the evening, and parted from 
our distinguished traveling companion with mutual as- 
surances of the pleasure we had derived from our chance 
acquaintance. My friends had rooms engaged at Mor- 
ley's Hotel, on Trafalgar Square, and although I, an old 
hahitue of London, was onlv too familiar with tliat poc- 



THE IRON DUEE AM) THE CHARTISTS. 39 

ond-class inn with first-class prices, I was unwilling to 
forego their company, and therefore ordered my cab to 
the same destination. 

I found that nothing else was tlioiight of or talked 
about at the capital but the Chartist business. There 
was very serious and wide-spread alarm, in which the 
Government, to all appearances, largely participated, 
Aprojjos of this, I will mention a circumstance of com- 
paratively secret history. The Duke of Wellington 
was sent for by the Queen, and requested to take su- 
preme command of the troops upon the occasion. This 
he consented to do, with the proviso, howe^'er, that he 
should possess an absolute dictatorship for the time be- 
ing, and be, under no circumstances, subject to receive 
orders from the Home Department. This condition was 
acceded to, and there is no doubt that, had an attack upon 
London been attempted, he would have proceeded to the 
utmost extremities in its defense. The Court retired to 
the Isle of Wight a day or two before, and Punch and 
the other wits amused themselves vastly at the expense 
of Prince Albert, who, as a field-marshal, should have 
remained at tlie post of danger. It was supposed that 
her Majesty was peremptory upon the subject, and over- 
ruled any martial propensities which her consort might 
possess. 

Great preparations were made for the defense of the 
Bank of England, the Royal Exchange, and other public 
edifices — especially the Bank, the treasure in M'hich was 
likely to attract the cupidity of a revolutionary mob. 
The roof was protected by sand -bags, behind which 
marksmen could be safely placed. The night before tlie 
anticipated outbreak, Iai"ge stores of muskets and am- 



40 MEMOBIES OF MANY HEN. 

munition were conveyed tliere and to otlier places from 
the Admiralty. My friend Kendall came to grief that 
night from his excessive curiosity. About nine o^ clock 
in the evening he made his way down past the Houses 
of Parliament to the head of Westminster Bridge, where 
cannon were planted to rake the insurgents who were ex- 
pected to come over on the morrow from their camping- 
ground on Kennington Common. Here lie was oi-dered 
hack in very peremptory fashion. Strolling up White- 
hall, lie managed in some way to slip by the sentinel and 
to get into the court -yard of the Admiralty, admission 
to which was for the nonce prohibited. Here he was 
pounced upon in short order. In vain he protested that 
he was only an enterprising Yankee, actuated by no 
worse motive than curiosity. He was carried off to 
durance vile, and only liberated the next day upon es- 
tablishing his identity and his harmlessness. 

The most exaggerated rumors were circulated in ref- 
erence to the numbers of the hostile masses collected on 
the Surrey side. The general estimate did not fall short 
of thirty or forty thousand, which was afterward proved 
to be a grossly excessive one. 

The preservation of the peace was primarily intrusted 
to the police, and, in addition to the regular force, a large 
number of special constables was enrolled for the occa- 
sion. The military was of course only to be called out 
as a last resort. Some twenty Americans, who lodged at 
Morley's, myself and my friends included, offered our 
services as specials, which offers were unhesitatingly ac- 
cepted. And when the time came, each armed with a 
formidable club wiiicli he had received from the author- 
ities, we were as ready as any of her Majesty's loyal sub- 



BISPEBSINO THE MOB. 41 

jects to do battle in defense of law and order. It was 
rather an interesting and exciting sight as, at nine o'clock 
on the morning when the demonstration was to come 
off, I was quietly taking my tea and muffins, and looking 
out of the coffee-room window upon Trafalgar Square. 
The whole area was densely filled, principally by a large 
body of police, who were going through their military 
evolutions with the precision of soldiers. Among them 
was a small corps of mounted constabulary, ready for a 
charge down Parliament Street if occasion should re- 
quire it. A good many roughs were scattered about, but 
they gave no indications of any but the most peaceful 
intentions. 

At ten o'clock I emerged from the hotel, and took a 
short stroll up the Haymarket. The shops were every 
where closed, and the streets were filled with people. I 
only remained out about half an hour, and then re- 
turned to my quarters. 

About eleven o'clock I noticed unusual indications of 
preparation among the police upon the square, and short- 
ly afterward a dense mass, composed of the lowest class 
of the populace, came struggling up Parliament Street, 
and began to pour in upon the open area. They were 
singing and shouting, and seemed more impelled by 
the love of a frolic than by any thing more serious. 
In a moment about a dozen policemen charged at a full 
gallop, and the mob, by some remarkable power of elas- 
tic self-compression, instantly made way for them in ev- 
ery direction, laughing and hurrahing as they did so. 
This brilliant cavalry conj) decided, as it were, the fate 
of the day. The Chartists did not attempt to cross the 
river, overawed, probably, by the reception which they 



43 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEN. 

knew was prepared for them. After that there was 
nothing but amusing episodes. It was known that Lon- 
don was full of French revolutionary agents, and wher- 
ever these gentry showed themselves, they w^ere treated 
by the populace with any thing but distinguished con- 
sideration. I saw one unfortunate ajjostle of liberty, 
equality, and fraternity so severely ducked in the basin 
of one of the fountains of Trafalgar Square, that I was 
afraid the poor Gaul was taking his last (and perhaps 
his first) bath. 

The rest of the day was a sort of carnival. No one 
attempted to transact any business, and the shops remain- 
ed closed. Fun was universal, and the special consta- 
bles, whose name was legion, paraded the streets with 
the consciousness that their valor had not been very se- 
verely tried. That evening the monster petition was 
rolled upon a barrow into the House of Commons, and 
duly presented by its godfather, Fergus O'Connor. The 
next day I happened to be at the railway station as Fp:r- 
Gus was leaving for the country. Poor fellow, he died 
insane many years ago, and I am not quite certain that 
his insanity was then of recent date. 

That evening Sanders and Kendall went together to 
the opera. They affected extreme rusticity, and absolute 
ignorance in regard to every thing pertaining to that or 
to any other similar performance. They purposely made 
the most uncouth remarks, and asked the most absurd 
questions of those who happened to be seated near them. 
A well-intentioned but oflicious Cockney wine -dealer 
came to their rescue — one of those weak-minded cits 
who so abound in London. Ilira they at once decided 
to unmercifully quiz. During the remainder of the per- 



ROASTING A COCKNEY. 43 

foi'mancG they poured into liis ears the most marvel- 
ous stories of American savagery, and tliey found his 
credulity quite equal to their united powers of invention. 
After tlie play was over they invited him to snp with 
them at Morley's. lie accepted the invitation. They 
related to him the most horrible stories of Indian butch- 
ery until his very hair stood on end. About two o'clock 
in the morning they began a war -dance, accompanied 
by tlie most hideous howlings, when suddenly, brandish- 
ing some of Sanders's sample revolvers, they chased 
the now tlioroughly " demoralized " Briton from the 
house. The noise which the tormentors made, added 
to the shrieks of alarm uttered by their victim, aroused 
every body in the hotel, and came near resulting in the 
summary and ignominious ejection from it of those who 
had created the disturbance. The next morning, being 
gentlemen at heart, they called upon the frightened 
vendor of imitation sherry, and that very afternoon they 
all dined together at the Star and Garter at Richmond, 
upon terms of the most cordial and affectionate friend- 
ship. 

One or two evenings afterward, the Court having re- 
turned to Buckingham Palace, the Queen went in state 
to the opera. I took especial pains to be there, for I ex- 
pected an extraordinary exhibition of loyalty. And I 
was not disappointed. The opera was "Don Giovanni" 
- — a work which calls for the entire strength, both male 
and female, of the company. The house was packed from 
pit to dome. Her Majesty entered while the orcliestra 
was playing tlie overture. In a moment the entire au- 
dience arose, and cried with one voice for " God save the 
Queen !" The orchestra ceased playing, the prompter's 



44 ]\>mMOBIES OF MANY MEN. 

bell tinkled, the curtain was drawn np and displayed all 
the principal artists ranged in a semicircle upon the 
stage. At a signal from the condnctor a prelude was 
played, and then Gkisi advanced to the footlights, and 
with the glorious voice she then possessed, sang the first 
verse, the whole house standing, her Majesty included. 
The chorus was taken up by the other singers and by 
the entire pit. Then Makio sang a verse, and then Per- 
siANi, and then Tamburesti, and then Lablaciie. I never 
saw such a scene of wild enthusiasm. It was so con- 
tagious that I am confident the Queen had no more 
loyal subject there that evening than myself. The boxes 
entirely forgot their usual frigid propriety, and marchion- 
esses and countesses vied with each other in clapping 
their hands and waving their handkerchiefs. 



CHAPTER III. 

UPON the occasion of this visit to London I had 
tlie pleasure to meet and to make the acquaint- 
ance of Ralph Waldo Emekson, the foremost American 
philosopher and critic, and the gentlest and most amiable 
of men. Mr. EaiEESON had letters to Sie Chaeles Baeey, 
the architect of the new Houses of Parliament, not 
then completed, and we called together upon him. Sik 
Chaeles received us stiffly, and with but scant courtesy 
of manner ; but he extended to us facilities for visiting 
and examiniug this structure, in some respects one of the 
most remarkable of modern times ; although I can not 
help considering it, in its entirety very inferior to our 
own Is"ational Capitol at Washington. Mr. Emeeson and 
I also passed much time together in the British Museum, 
whose varied collections possess an interest for the culti- 
vated mind, hardly, if at all, equaled by those of any 
other establishment in Europe, and compared with which 
the best of our own arc petty and insignificant. When 
we parted after a few short days of companionship, I 
looked upon Mr. Emeeson's acquaintance as a treasure to 
be preserved and enlarged by me in the future ; but in 
the progress of lives devoted, by chance or incliuation, to 
widely different activities, it has never since been my 
fortune to meet him. His name already inspired me 
with awe when we first came together. The simplicity 
of his nature, and his instinctive abhorrence of all shams. 



40 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

soon dispelled the embarrassment of admiration, and sub- 
stituted in its stead the ease of familiar and unaffected 
intercourse. 

I have mentioned that I had gone over to England 
in tlie pursuit of health. I was the bearer of a let- 
ter of introduction from a distinguished physician of 
New York to the eminent Sik Benjamin Bkodie. I 
called upon Sm Benjamin sooit after my arrival in Lon- 
don, when he made an appointment for me to come 
again at nine o'clock on the morning immedi?itely suc- 
ceeding the operatic fete to which I have referred. 
Punctually at the appointed hour I arrived at his house 
in Saville Row. The servant who admitted me told 
me that Sik Benjamin was engaged with some ladies, 
who had come from a long distance in the country ex- 
pressly to consult him, and that he therefore begged that 
I would await his leisure. Accordingly I was shown 
into the library, where I found a cheerful fire, and the 
morning papers spread out upon a table. Drawing up 
an arm-chair to one corner of the fire-place, I seated my- 
self, crossed my legs, and was soon deeply immersed in 
the leviathan columns of The Times. 

I had been reading perhaps ten minutes, when the 
door opened, and another gentleman was ushered into 
the room by the flunky. The stranger was a short, thick- 
set man, evidently a foreigner, and dressed in an irre- 
proachable suit of mourning. I glanced at him furtively 
from my newspaper, and settled it in my own mind that 
he must be a German. In accordance with English cus- 
tom, not the slightest recognition of the other's presence 
passed between us. He hovered over the table a mo- 
ment, selected a paper from among several still lying 



A MYSTERIOUS FOREIGNER. 



47 



there, settled himself iu a chair at the opposite corner of 
the fii-e- place, and followed my example by devoting 
himself to the news of the day. 

After a time I became tired of reading, and threw 
down my journal. The stranger, a few minutes later, 
did the same thing. I then had an opportunity to more 
particularly scan his person. He was a heavy, dull, im- 
passive-looking man, and his half-closed eyelids gave a 
peculiar expression to his face. I observed tliat his arms 
and legs indicated great strength, but he did not look 
like a person of much activity. His arms were very 
long, aud his legs quite short ; he stood of low stature, 
and sat decidedly tall. He kept rubbing the side of his 
nose gently Avith his forefinger — a habit which I fre- 
quently had occasion afterward to observe in the same 
j)erson. For some minutes we sat like two fools, or like 
two thoroughly well-bred Englishmen (by no means con- 
vertible terms, however), pretending to gaze at the fire. 
At length my companion opened the way for conversa- 
tion by observing that it was a fine day. His accent, 
which was very marked, struck me as decidedly Teu- 
tonic, and confirmed me in the impression that he was a 
German. I assented to his observation, and, the ice once 
broken, we soon got on together famously — he taking me 
for an Englishman, and I taking liim for a German. 
From one subject we passed to another, until he intro- 
duced that of the Chartist affair, upon which he talked 
so well that I became greatly interested. He was un- 
bounded in liis praises of the good sense displayed by 
the English people, particularly the lower middle-classes 
— meaning the shop-keepers and the artisans. He was 
happy that he had possessed the opportunity to see so 



48 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

satisfactory and striking an exhibition of tliis. "A vio- 
lent revolution will ne^•er succeed in Great Britain in 
this century, at least," he went on to say, " although your 
institutions are in a state of continuous revolutionary 
progress, so to speak. There is a vast difference between 
the classes to which I have alluded here and the corre- 
sponding ones on the Continent, especially in France. 
Every thing continues to move on here in old and well- 
worn grooves. The London shop-keeper of to-day fol- 
lows the same business, at the same stand, which his fa- 
ther and grandfather followed before him. He has the 
sense to comprehend and appreciate the difficulty of 
making a livelihood amid the competition of so dense a 
population, sliould he once get oif the track. In a word, 
he knows that in a general scramble he has more chances 
of losing than of gaining. Hence, apart- from his feel- 
ing of loyalty, which is deep-rooted, and impels him to- 
ward governmental and dynastic conservatism, his inter- 
est, as he understands it, would suffice to induce him to 
stand by the institutions of the country, should the at- 
tempt be made to overthrow them by violence. Your 
agricultural population is only instinctively, not intelli- 
gently loyal. I do not mean at all to imply, by any 
thing I have said, that your shop-keepers and artisans are 
not dissatisfied with many things, and do not claim and 
will not always exercise the right of unlimited grum- 
bling. But at the bottom they know that j^our Constitu- 
tion is a self-purifying machine, and that there is a nev- 
er-ceasing tendency toward improvement. On the con- 
trary, notwithstanding all that experience has shown him 
since the commencement of the Revolution of 178 9, the 
average French bourgeois can not be convinced that an- 



A FUTUHH EMFEROB. 49 

other violent change will not better his condition by 
some means which he can neither explain nor distinctly 
comprehend. His hopes always outweigh his fears, and 
his interests are always subordinated to his passions. He 
can neither be easily governed, nor can he easily govern 
himself." 

I do not wish to be understood to quote these as the 
precise words of my interlocutor, but they substantially 
reproduce what he said. 

AVe must have been talking together at least half an 
hour, when Sm Benjamin opened a door which commu- 
nicated by a passage-way to his study, and, bowing to 
my companion, called me in — probably because I alone 
had an appointment. As soon as we w^ere seated, he 
asked me if I knew who it was whom I had left be- 
hind me in the library. I told him that I did not ; that 
I thought he was a German ; that, at all events, he was 
a remarkably intelligent man, although he did not look 
at all so. " Well," he said, with a smile, " that is Louis 
Napoleon !" This, be it remembered, was a few weeks 
before the Prince passed over to France to take his seat 
as a member of the Legislative Assembly. I asked Sir 
Benjamin what was the motive of his visit to him. He 
told me that he had some trouble about the heart — 
whether organic or functional,! did not inquire. I nev- 
er met Louis Napoleon again until I saw him in Paris, 
six years later, Emperor of the French. 

And here, perhaps, I ouglit to stop, as my personal 
reminiscences of the exiled Prince go no farther. But 
the subject is a tempting one, and, as accident has 
brought me into contact with several persons who knew 
him during his first residence in England, the reader will 

C 



50 MEMOEIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

probably excuse me if I draw a little upon the recollec- 
tions of others. 

One of the best friends he ever had on the north side of 
the channel was Bakoness (then Miss Bukdett) Coutts. 
This estimable lady was nnceasing in her kindness to 
him, and, what is still more, she was the first person to 
appreciate his abilities at any thing like their true value. 
So high an estimate of them did she form and express, 
that her friends were both pained and amused at what 
they considered her good-natured but most unfounded 
prejudice in his favor. The fast young men of London, 
whose society he affected, generally pronounced him an 
idiot. This was especially true of his associates of the 
notorious Coventry Club, which was afterward broken up 
by the police. He was also very kindly received at the 
house of Mr. Bates, of the great firm of Baeing Bkotu- 
EES, at East Sheene. Mrs. Bates, like most English 
ladies of the day, held tobacco-smoke in horror ; but the 
Prince, when a visitor, was allowed, as a special favor, to 
smoke in his own room; and upon such occasions the 
other gentlemen present were told that if they desired 
to smoke they might do so in the same place. One 
evening something occurred to make him very anxious 
to return immediately to London. He had no carriage 
of his own with him, and was very reluctant to ask Mr. 
Bates to lend him one. In this dilemma he went to 
a friend of mine, who happened to be visiting at the 
house, and asked him if he minded requesting another 
gentleman with whom he was intimate to let hhn have 
the use of his brougham for a drive to town, without 
mentioning by whom it was desired. My friend unhesi- 
tatingly complied with the request ; but the owner of the 



LADY BLESSmOTON. 5J^ 

brougham insisted upon knowing wlio was to use it, say- 
ing that he supposed it was " that bloody fool, Louis ISTa- 
POLEON," and, if so, that he should not have it. And it 
was only with great difficulty that he was finally induced 
to yield the point. 

Lady Blessington and Count d'Oesay were like a sis- 
ter and a brother to him. The gates of Gore House 
were open to him at all hours, and he freely availed him- 
self of the tendered hospitality. The only reproach of 
serious ingratitude of which I have ever heard him ac- 
cused refers to his alleged neglect of these persons when, 
during his presidency, they came over to Paris after pe- 
cuniary reverses had broken up the Lady's London es- 
tablishment. So far as D'Oksay is concerned, it is true 
that the President tardily conferred upon him the office 
of Superintendent of the Fine Arts, the honors and 
emoluments of which he did not live long to enjoy. 
His neglect of Lady Blessington, although not excus- 
able, may be partly accounted for by the peculiar position 
which her ladyship occupied in English society. He may 
have hesitated to invite her to his balls and receptions, 
fearing to give too much offense to her countrywomen, 
who crowded them. At any rate, he delayed a long 
time before doing so. 

Lady Blessington, besides being a charming woman, 
was one of the most brilliant w'its of her day. Shortly 
after the breaking out of the Revolution of 1848, a for- 
eign embassador in London asked her what she thought 
of M. DE Lamartine, who was then playing a conserva- 
tive role. " He reminds me," she instantly replied, " of 
an incendiary who has turned fireman." She had been 
in Paris for some time, unnoticed by the President, when 



52 2IE210RIES OF MANY MEX 

at last she received an invitation from him to a ball at 
tlie Elysee Bourbon. This she accepted, and as soon as 
the President saw her enter the room he advanced to 
her, and, extending both hands, said he was glad to see 
lier, and asked her if she purposed remaining long in 
Earis. "No," she promptly answered; "i?t> yoiiT'' 

No one in London, it is said, had a more open hand 
for the future Emperor than Mitchel, the manager of 
the St. James' Theatre. It may be remarked that no 
borrower of money ever more scrupulously returned it 
than did Louis Napoleon. AVlien he and the Empress 
paid the Queen a visit in l85tt or 1855 — I forget which 
— he had been but a few hours in London before lie 
sent for Mitchel, with whom he familiarly conversed 
for a long time, showing that, with the change in his 
fortunes, he had not forgotten old friends. 

It is related — but of course I can not vouch for the 
truth of the story — that upon one occasion a wag im- 
posed upon the credulity of the exiled Prince by a foi-ged 
letter of invitation to dine with the Queen at Windsor. 
Now in those days her Majesty was on terms of great in- 
timacy with the Orleans famil}^, and completely ignored 
poor Louis Napoleon, having declined to even receive 
liim at Court. However surprised, therefore, he must 
have been at so unexj^ccted a mark of royal favor, it 
would seem that he did not suspect its want of genuine- 
ness. Donning a uniform, and arraying his groom in a 
gorgeous livery, he drove to Windsor, where he discov- 
ered that he had been hoaxed ; and it is said that the 
Queen was not gracious enough to do any thing to re- 
lieve his mortification. If this is not a canard, he after- 
ward had an ample revenge : he both visited and re- 



AN ANGLICIZED KNICEEBBOCKER. 53 

ceived lier Majesty while he was supposed to be the most 
powerful monarch in the world. 

I recollect meeting a gentleman who was well ac- 
quainted with the Prince in England. He told me that 
lie once went out hunting with him and his cousin, 
PiiiNCE Napoleon (Jerome). As they were driving to 
covert, Louis Napoleon w^as dull and moody, whereas 
his cousin was full of excitement about the anticipated 
sport. But the moment they backed their horses they 
changed characters ; the one became full of energy and 
daring, the other subsided into quiet, if not timidity. 

During the presidency, Lord Aberdeen, afterw^ard 
British Prime Minister, went over to Paris with the 
real, if not the avowed, object of studying the President. 
He remained there more than a fortnight, constantly in 
Louis Napoleon's society, and dining with him almost 
every day. Just before he left to return to England, he 
wrote a private letter to a friend, who afterward showed 
me the following extract from it: "As to the President, 
I can make nothing of him but a dismal, dreary creat- 
ure !" AVas he, or was he not, mistaken in his apprecia- 
tion ? 

At this time my dear friend, John Eomeyn Bkodiiead, 
whom I had known from my boyhood up, and whom I 
only a few months ago followed to his last resting-place, 
was Secretary of the United States Legation, under 
George Bancroft, as Minister. Poor Brodiiead, wdio 
was one of the most amiable, was also one of the most 
nervous of men. During his residence in England he 
had become almost painfully Anglicized, and any de- 
parture from English usages and etiquette occasioned 
him the keenest and most genuine distress. Once I went 



54 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

with iiim to look for lodgings for a common friend. 
Among the honses which we visited, in qnest of what we 
wanted, was one kept by a person of ^■ery ladylike ap- 
pearance and manners, and on leaving I saluted her by 
removing my hat, as we should do upon a like occasion 
to any respectable woman in America or in France. 
Seeing my action, Brodhead shot off as if he had been 
exploded from a gun, and at first I was in a state of in- 
nocent amazement as to what could have produced this 
extraordinary exodus. lie soon rejoined me, as I was 
slowly walking away. He was out of breath and pant- 
ing, and, with an expression of deep injury upon his 
countenance, he asked me how I could be guilty of the 
solecism of taking off my hat to a lodging-house keeper ! 
"Don't you know," he said, " that it is never done in En- 
gland?" As I didn't know it,I had to oy^ jpeccavi. UiDon 
another occasion, Bkodhead, Sanders, Prentiss, and I 
went to Dolly's famous old chop-house in the City to 
dine. Dolly's was a more j^rimitive place than Garko- 
w^AY^'s, or than Xed's and the other similar establish- 
ments which have recently sprung up in the neighbor- 
hood of the Eoyal Exchange. You went there for chops, 
steaks, potatoes, and beer, which were all served to 3'ou 
in perfection ; but for any thing more elaborate and lux- 
urious it was not the habit to call. Some one of the 
party, however — I forget who — ordered champagne; 
whereat Brodhead, disgusted with our ignorance, incon- 
tinently withdrew ; and it was only the next day that I 
learned that to order champagne at a chop-house was an 
evidence of barbarous bringing-up not to be endured by 
a civilized man! Brodhead afterward held for four 
years the office of Naval Officer of the Port of New York. 



QUEER SHOP SIGN'S. 55 

He is best known to the public, however, by his " History 
of the State of New York," a work of enormous research, 
written with great care and discrimination, to the com- 
position of which he devoted the declining years of his 
life, with an assiduity which not only affected his health, 
but unquestionably hastened his decease. At one time 
he was sent to Holland by the State of !New York to col- 
lect documents affecting our early history, and while he 
was in London he industriously prosecuted his researches 
in the State-Paper Office. He had in his veins some of 
our best Colonial blood, both Dutch and English, and he 
always entertained against the "pestilent Yankees" al- 
most as strong a prejudice as some of his progenitors in 
New Netherlands. 

As I sauntered through the streets of London, I was 
often struck by the many singular names over the shop 
doors. You find no such variety of strange patronymics 
in America. It is well known that Dickens selected the 
very peculiar names of some of his characters from real 
ones, which his ever-observant eyes fell upon as he walked 
the streets of the metropolis. I noticed upon a sign over 
a door on St. Martin's Lane the name of " Quilp." I 
think it was a farrier's shop. This reminds me of a 
Scotchman of the same trade who used to keep his shop 
in Church Street, New York, at the top of an alley-way. 
At the entrance was a sign bearing the following canny 
inscription : 

" Sinclair Lithgow, horse-slioeing smith, 
Warks up this close wi' a' his pith. 
He dis his wark baith weel and soon, 
But likes the siller -when 'tis done." 



56 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. 

I remember a shop near Westminster Bridge, over which 
was painted, without punctuation, 

"Till late Daeke;" 
meaning, as we should express it, " Till, successor to 
Darke." Wlien the words first attracted my attention, 
I thought that they were intended to indicate that the 
shop was kept open until late in the evening. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

I'N the autumn of the year 1854 1 again visited Europe. 
I stayed in England but a few days, and went thence 
to Paris, where I engaged apartments in expectation of 
a prolonged sojourn in that capital. I had no very def- 
inite plans for the future, and looked forward to the 
enjoyment for a considerable period, at least, of rest and 
leisure. But, as has always happened to me, these ex- 
pectations were not destined to be realized. I had not 
been in Paris a week before I was invited by the Hon- 
orable JonN Y. Mason, then our Minister to France, to 
occupy the position of Secretary of Legation, wliicli 
chanced to be temporarily vacant. I accepted it without 
much rellection. I supposed that the office was one 
which involved but little labor, and the incumbency of 
which must necessarily be of the most agreeable charac- 
ter. It did not take me long to find out how greatly I 
had been mistaken. The current work — the answering 
daily of scores of letters and the transcribing of dis- 
patches — was enough to occupy one industrious person. 
But, added to this, when I took possession of the place I 
found every thing fearfully in arrear, and for weeks I 
was kept at my desk until a late hour in the evening. It 
was true that we had one or two ornamental attaches, but 
to do any thing in consideration of having the honor to 
bear the title upon their visiting cards never occurred to 
them. Again, all tlie social embarrassments of the Le- 

C2 



5S MUMOEIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

gation — and tliey were both numerous and trying — were 
thrust upon the Secretary. Hundreds of our countrymen, 
of proverbial modesty, who were entitled at the utmost 
to have their passports vised, would ask of us the most 
unreasonable facilities and tlie most unheard of favors. 
Citizens not even accredited by letters of introduction 
would insist upon private audiences of the Emperor, 
and, no matter how politely you declined to act as the 
medium of their laudable ambition, they would anathe- 
matize you, and threaten to "go for" your official head 
immediately after their return to America. Crack-brain- 
ed inventors would ask you to do the most impossible 
things for them in connection with the several Depart- 
ments of the Government, even to bringing them without 
circumlocution to the fountain of power ; and your mild- 
est protests only subjected you to contumely and abuse. 
I particularly remember one lunatic who had come over 
with a new projectile, of which he had a Avooden model 
which looked like a rolling-pin tapered down to a point 
at one end. Of course he did not speak a word of 
French — they never do— and he pestered the life out 
of me, until, in an unguarded moment, I yielded, and 
consented to accompany him to the War Department. 
It is unnecessary to say that we were politely received, and 
invited to leave our model with the accompanying ex- 
planations, with the assurance that they would be prompt- 
ly submitted to an artillery commission for examination 
and report. About a fortnight afterward, my tormentor 
received an official invitation to call again at the Depart- 
ment and receive the report of the examiners. Of 
course, I was again badgered into accompanying him. 
Wlien we arrived, we were conducted to a bureau of the 



[" 



SWEETS OF DIPLOMATIC LIFE. 59 

Department presided over by a captain of artillery. This 
gentleman proceeded in the most delicate manner to ex- 
plain to me in French that the same invention had been 
submitted to his Government so long ago as the year 1827 
by a Swedish officer, that it had then been thoroughly 
tested, and that it was found to be absolutely worthless. 
At every moment, while he was speaking, my companion 
impatiently interrupted him by asking me, " What does 
he say ? What does he say V I waited until the state- 
ment was completed, and then translated it into English 
to the inventor. " Tell him that he is an infernal ass !" 
he shouted, when I had got through. The French of- 
ficer smiled, and, resuming, said to me : " I can make 
every allowance for your friend's disappointment, and, 
of course, in nowise hold you responsible for his indis- 
cretion, but be pleased to advise him that when he is 
again disposed to express himself in such unreserved 
terms toward a stranger, he first make sure that he does 
not understand English !" Ladies would sometimes be 
so unreasonable as to ask us to do them the trifling favor 
of sending oxev small parcels for them in the dispatch- 
bag. I remember that once, upon opening the London 
dispatch-bag, we found in it a corset, which the fair 
owner liad inclosed as a model b}^ which she desired her 
corsetilre to fabricate for lier a new one. But the great- 
est calamity to us was when an official ball ov fete was 
to be given by some high officer of the Government or 
by the Municipality of Paris. Whenever this happened 
we would be hunted down for invitations. Where many 
asked, the greater number had to be disappointed. The 
American residents always thought that they had a su- 
perior claim upon the Legation, under whose immediate 



60 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEX. 

protection tliey fancied that they lived. The travelers, 
on the contrary, thought that, because their opportunities 
were fewer, they were entitled to the first consideration. 
Those who succeeded did not thank you, and those who 
failed devoted you to the infernal gods. I have partic- 
ularly in mind a grand ball, which the City of Paris 
gave at the Hotel de Ville to the King of Poktugal. 
Earon IIaussmann, the Prefect of the Seine, sent an 
early notice of the projected ^ez^e to our Legation, coupled 
with the request that we would transmit to him a list of 
tlie American ladies and gentlemen for whom we de- 
sired invitations. Judge Mason protested that he would 
have nothing to do with the matter. I was almost in 
despair. Tlie only device that occurred to me was to 
post up in the Legation a paper to be signed by those 
who desired to go. Before the time arrived to make 
application, the names on that list had swollen to^I 
should be afraid to say how many hundreds. Conscious 
of the impropriety which I was committing, I fired the 
entire catalogue at Baron IIaussmann. The next day 
he returned it to me, with a letter in which he said that, 
while it always afforded him the greatest pleasure to 
oblige the United States Legation to the extent of his 
ability, he was, nevertheless, compelled to inform me that 
we had asked for more invitations to that ball than 
could be accorded to all the foreign nationalities united ; 
but that if we would revise it, and send him thirty-five 
selected names, it would afford him the highest gratifica- 
tion to immediately forward cards to them. To have to 
select thirty-five out of perhaps eight liundred ! I for- 
get how we did it ; but the yision of outraged fathers, 
indignant mammas, and liysterical daughters still floats 



A VIRGINIAN GENTLEMAN. Q\ 

before me. I am sure that for this one act my memory 
is still execrated by hundreds of worthy and virtuous 
citizens of both sexes. Our compatriots in distress, who 
had gotten themselves into Clichy, or worse, added to the 
amenities of tlie situation. So that, as I premised, the 
position of Secretary of Legation in France did not 
prove to me to be one of unalloyed delight. Nor is it 
one that any young gentleman who looks to the office as 
a stepping-stone to political preferment at home would 
do well to accept (if only he can get it), at least until 
he has thoroughly reconnoitered the situation, and be- 
come convinced that it is now a seat of more roses and 
fewer thorns than I found it — pressed into the service 
and receiving no recompense beyond the consciousness 
of good intentions, and discharging its duties as long as 
I did, chiefly it would seem at the bidding of the Neme- 
sis of work, which has pursued me through my life and 
been the bane of my existence. 

Judge Mason was a fine specimen of the Virginian 
of the old school, and in many respects a remarkable 
man. The day after the presentation of his credentials 
to the Emperor of the French as Envoy Extraordinary 
and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, 
the official Moniteur announced the event, calling him 
His Excellency Johnny — instead of John Y. — Mason. 
The paragraph must have been written ])y some traveled 
Frenchman, who had had a familiar John, to him known 
as Johnny, and who supposed that John Y., if so the 
name had first reached him, was the erroneous spelling 
of some countryman not so well up as himself in En- 
glish names. The Judge had been on the bench in 
his native state, and was at one time Attorney-General, 



62 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

and at another Secretary of the ISTavy. lie was a man 
of commanding presence and of the most generous im- 
pulses, which he sometimes indulged to an extent that 
defied prudence, as he had a large family, and his pri- 
vate means were very limited. His intelligence was of 
a very high order, and his knowledge of questions of 
state and of political economy thorough and accurate. 
He was an earnest advocate of free-trade, and reasoned 
more cogently in its fa^'or than any one else whom I 
ever listened to. The Emperor took great pleasure and in- 
terest in hearing him talk upon this subject, and many an 
hour did they pass together ttte-d-tete at Saint Cloud dis- 
cussing it. At the same time, Mr. Mason possessed the 
tenderness and almost the weakness of a woman. His 
prejudices for and against persons were of the strongest 
and most obstinate character, and he sometimes indulged 
them unreasonably and extravagantly^ His sensibilities 
and his emotional character were morbidly develoj^ed. 
In a word, his mind was strong and his moral tempera- 
ment weak, so that he always reminded me of a power- 
ful steam-engine propelling a feeble and ill-contrived 
vessel. In spite of all, if j'ou were his friend, you could 
not help loving him, for his impulses were noble and 
his affection warm and devoted. If there were any two 
things in the world that the Judge preferred to all oth- 
ers, they were Virginia hams and Virginia tobacco. A 
plentiful supply of both was frequently brought over to 
him by the pursers of the steamers from Kew York to 
Havre, and when a fresh provision of hams arrived 
there was sure to be feasting at the Legation. Tlie 
Judge had an amiable, accomplished, and hospitable 
family, and his eldest daughter supplied by her social 



SLAVEHOLDER AXD ABOLITIONIST. 53 

tact whatever there was of deficiency in that respect in 
her fatlier's composition. 

It was either in the winter of 1854-5, or in the fol- 
lowing spring, that Chakles Suivenee came to Paris to 
seek medical advice for the injm-ies inflicted npon him 
by Peeston Beooks, of South Carolina, who, it v;ill be re- 
membered, assaulted him with a heavy cane while seated 
in his chair in the Senate-chamber, after the adjourn- 
ment for the day of that body. If there was any thing 
in the world that Mr. Mason hated beyond all others it 
was an abolitionist, and from what he said about Mr. 
SuMNEE we were all in the direst apprehension lest, if 
that gentleman should call upon the Minister, a very dis- 
agreeable scene might be the consequence. It was in 
vain that I ai'gued to the Judge tiiat in his capacity of 
our national representative he was bound to receive with 
politeness and consideration any United States Senator 
who should present himself. lie utterly refused to ac- 
knowledge the correctness of my reasoning. It turned 
out accidentally that Mr. Suimnee called at a time when 
Mr. Mason happened to be not at home. AVhen the 
Judge found the card, he declared with emphasis that 
nothing would induce him to return the call. Two days 
thereafter, however, the Minister's cards were left at the 
Senator's lodgings ; but the former never knew any thing 
about it, and the latter was not informed that they came 
to him without authority. 

Mr. Mason's conduct toward Hoeace Geeeley, who 
came to Paris in the summer of 1855, was quite differ- 
ent. It is certain that Mr. Geeeley was as advanced 
an abolitionist as Mr. Scisinee; but then he did not hold 
public office. Tlie Judge made just the opposite dis- 



(34 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

tinction here to that which appeared to me a natural 
one. Mr. Gkeeley told me that when he first called 
upon the Minister he felt very uncertain about the re- 
ception which awaited him ; that to his surprise he found 
his political opponent not only kind, but even cordial. 
He continued all the time that he remained in Paris to 
receive marked attention from Mr. Mason. Upon sev- 
eral occasions he spoke to me about this matter, and ex- 
pressed with much feeling his sense of the politeness of 
the Minister. 

The highest object of ambition of the average Amer- 
ican man and woman who came to Paris in those days 
was a presentation at Court, with a vista of future invi- 
tations to the Tuileries. Wholesale presentations usual- 
ly were accorded at uncertain intervals of time, at which 
were gathered together representatives of nearly all the 
nations of the earth. Preceding the arrival of their Maj- 
esties, our people were usually gathered together in the 
same room with the Mexicans and South Americans. 
Sometimes we occupied an apartment with some of the 
nationalities of Continental Europe ; but never by any 
cliance were we and the English caged together. I pre- 
sume that the French notion was that under no circum- 
stances could we be trusted to live together in the har- 
mony of a happy family. There were frequently ridic- 
ulous and sometimes mortifying incidents at these pres- 
entations. I recollect one of them appointed for a 
Sunday, the usual day for such ceremonies, the notices 
for which were only issued on Saturday afternoon, and 
not received by many of the persons interested until the 
next morning. Gentlemen were required to present 
themselves " ^/i uniformed'' and ladies, " en toilette de 



PRESENTING UNPRESENTABLES. 55 

vilW'' — tins latter expression meaning in full visiting 
dress. The embarrassment which resulted from the 
tardiness of the notice may be imagined. The men 
rushed frantically to Woodman's, on the Boulevard des 
Italiens, that accomplished knight of the shears beiug 
purveyor-general of court-dresses to yankeedoodledom 
in Paris, and constantly keeping on hand an assortment 
ready made, which he hired out as raasquerade-cos- 
tumers do. Those who were so fortunate as to present 
themselves on Saturday evening not only had the first 
choice, but were in time to have the alterations made 
necessary to give something of a fit; whereas the un- 
fortunates of Sunday morning had to take what was left 
as they found it. 

Such a battalion as presented itself at the Palace at 
noon could only be conipared to Falstaff's regiment, or 
an old-fashioned country militia company. There were 
coats too big for their wearers, and coats too small ; 
sleeves too long, and sleeves too short ; trowsers dragging 
under the heel of the boot, and trowsers not reaching 
down to the ankle-joint; a miscellany o:^ cocked hats, and 
a confusion of swords that would trip up the inexperi- 
enced wearers. And all these incongruous articles of at- 
tire, apart from their unsuitableness to each individual 
case, were worn wuth the awkwardness peculiar to nov- 
ices in court-dress. The women were more fortunate, 
being generally provided with all the necessary articles 
of adornment, as nothing unusual to them was required. 
Charming as most of them were, there were a few whose 
appearance was such as to keep their male companions in 
countenance. You wnll at any time find in Paris a cer- 
tain number of peripatetic American ladies, whose whole 



QQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

being is shrouded in mystery — who come no one knows 
whence, and, after a time, go no one knows whither. 
They usually travel under the convenient title of widows, 
and are looking after some important interests which ap- 
pear to be of a foggy and indescribable character, I re- 
member npon the occasion in question one lady M'liom 
nobody knew, or could tell how she got there, and whose 
appearance attracted some attention. She wore a rusty 
black silk dress, cut very high in the neck, an enormous 
shell-cameo brooch, and a Canton crape shawl, which 
had been originally white in years long past, but which 
was then, to speak plainly, most disgustingly dirty. Aft- 
er a line had been formed on our side of the room, find- 
ing herself inconvenienced by the lieat, she removed this 
shawl, and threw it carelessly upon the back of an arm- 
chair, of which several were standing in a row opposite. 
A few minutes later a chamberlain, or aid, lounged into 
the room, and stood for a moment by the fire-place. 
Suddenly he glanced at this suspicious-looking garment, 
and he stuck a glass into his eye to examine it more par- 
ticularly. Then an expression of horror overspread his 
countenance, and, stepping upon the points of his toes, 
he advanced to it with great deliberation, skewered it 
upon the tip of his sword, gravely recrossed the room 
with it, and threw it down out of sight in a corner. It 
was not a pleasant thing to see done, but the owner of 
the offending article was an "unprotected female," and 
her ideas of " toilette de vilW^ were evidently not up to 
the standard of the French Court. 

Imagine, then, the American presentees, ranged as at 
drill, awaiting the Imperial approach. On the other side 
of the same room was drawn up a delegation of Span- 



BONN PIATT. Qij 

iards, Mexicans, and South Americans. In an adjoin- 
ing apartment, the door of which was open, were con- 
gregated the English and Germans, the greater part of 
the former (the men, I mean) in scarlet yeomanry uni- 
forms, M'jtli an occasional sprinkling of stunning High- 
land costumes. The British ladies, in general elegance 
of mise, and beauty and grace of person, bore no com- 
parison to our fair countrywomen. Why are the En- 
glish women so unaccountably awkward ? why have 
they such distressingly large hands and feet ? and why 
is their taste in dress so almost universally bad ? Beau- 
tiful complexions and well-developed forms can not alto- 
gether atone for these deficiencies, hardly even kind 
hearts and cultivated minds. 

Upon this particular occasion our Minister, having 
been taken suddenly ill, was unexpectedly absent. A 
Secretary of Legation can not present. That most face- 
tious of living humorists, Donn Piatt, then Secretary, 
was, however, in attendance. A chamberlain was to 
make the presentations, and before the time ai-rived he 
called Piatt to him, and requested him to give him a list 
of the persons to be presented, in the order in which they 
stood, and to especially mention for what, if any thing, 
any of them were distinguished, as the Emperor always 
desired to particularly notice persons entitled to more 
than a passing word from him. Heaven only knows 
what Piatt said about most of the party ; but standing 
in about the middle of the line was a Mr. Geoesbeck, and, 
calling particular attention to him, Piatt told the cham- 
berlain that he was a member of Congress from Ohio. 

Their Majesties visited the English and German apart- 
ment first. At last they crossed our threshold, the Em- 



gg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

peror followed by a male suite and the Empress by a fe- 
male one. I happened to be standing next the door, and 
the Emperor stopped directly in front of me, while the 
Empress passed on to the farther extremity of the line. 
His Majesty, upon that occasion, merely exchanged with 
me a few commonplaces, and then addressed himself to 
my next neighbor. I continued to keep my eye upon 
him in his downw^ard progress, until he crossed the Em- 
press in her advance in my direction. A moment after- 
ward he accosted Mr. Geoesbeck, and the chamberlain at 
the same time whispered into his ear what he supposed 
that gentleman to be. "Ah !" said his Majesty, smiling, 
" I understand that you are a member of Congress from 
Ohio, Mr. Geoesbeck." " No, sir, I am not," answered Mr. 
Groesbeck; "but I have a cousin who once was." He 
probably never knew to whom he was indebted for the 
title. The Emperor bit his lip, and was evidently -s'astly 
amused. 

This one presentation was but a specimen of numer- 
ous others. I will not undertake to describe a certain 
private audience at which I assisted, which was had of 
the Emperor at about tlie same time by the Hon. Mr. 
Washbeene, now our Minister to France, and then a 
member of Congress from Illinois ; the Hon. Mr. Geow, 
then a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, and sub- 
secpiently Speaker of the House of Representatives ; the 
Hon. Mr. Hareington, late Minister to Sw^itzerland ; and 
the Hon. Mr. Morgan, a member of Congress from AVest- 
ern New York. 

All the country knows that Donn Piatt is an incor- 
rigible wag. He used to give an account of the recep- 
tion by their Majesties of a distinguished soldier, which 



A BLUNT SOLDIER. qq 

he related with the greatest gravity and the most minute 
details, and to this day I have never been able to com- 
prehend how much of truth and how much of invention 
there was in it. I know that I shall fail to do the sub- 
ject justice, but, nevertheless, I can not refrain from 
making the attempt. 

Immediately after the occurrence of what is known in 
our diplomatic history as the " Black Warrior Affair," 
our Government sent to Madrid, as a special bearer of 
dispatches, Colonel Sumnee, of the United States Army, 
who afterward became so famous as General Sumner 
during the \yar of the Eebellion. The Colonel, upon 
his arrival at Paris from AVashington, made no stay 
there, but pushed on directly to Madrid. He conveyed 
instructions to Mr. Soule, our Minister to Spain, to lay 
the case before the Spanish Government, and to demand 
an immediate apology, togetiier with reparation. Mr. 
SouLE accordingly addressed a peremptory dispatch to 
Mr. LuzLEiAGA, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and asked 
for a reply within twenty-four hours. The allotted time 
passed, and no reply came. Mr. Soule then wrote still 
more peremptorily, saying that he could detain his mes- 
senger, an officer of rank, but one day longer. Before 
the expiration of this second day an answer came, couched 
in those terms of- extreme courtesy which Spanish offi- 
cials always employ, but to the effect that, inasmuch as 
the Government had as yet received no report of the 
matter in question from its agents in Cuba, it must de- 
cline for the present any consideration of the subject. 
Whereupon Colonel Sumnee incontinently packed his 
portmanteau and hurried back to Paris. Having a few 
days at his disposal before he was compelled to return to 



70 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

America, he devoted tliem to seeing the principal sights 
of the French capital. Among other things, he enter- 
tained an ardent desire to have an audience of the Em- 
peror and Empress, and Judge Mason, who was usually 
reluctant to ask these favors, finally consented to do so, 
and the matter was arranged. The next Sunday, at one 
o'clock, was the time appointed. 

Colonel Sumner was stopping with Mr. McRea, of 
North Carolina, the United States Consul in Paris, who 
lived somewhere on the Kne de Rivoli, mt qvatrihne or 
au ci)iquieme. Xow Judge Mason knew the Colonel to 
be a bluif, brusque soldier, who had spent most of his 
life fighting Indians on the frontier, and who, as Piatt 
said, while sitting one day with Jeffeeson Davis on a 
log in Mexico, during our war with that country, had 
been the joint-inventor with him of the inverted chim- 
ney-pot which for so many years formed the regulation 
head-gear of our army. At all events, from his brief 
communications with him, the Minister did not take him 
to be a courtly man. So, on the Saturday evening pre- 
ceding the appointed Sunday, Mr. Mason ordered his car- 
riage after dinner, and directed the coachman to drive 
to Mr. McEea's residence. When he reached that gen- 
tleman's apartment, he found the Colonel in the dining- 
room in his shirt-sleeves, with an old uniform coat and 
trowsers, both covered with spots and stains, spread out 
upon a table, and which, with a sponge saturated M'ith 
benzine, he was vigorously scouring. At this sight a cold 
perspiration started out upon the Judge's brow. " Why, 
Colonel, what is that V he exclaimed, " That," said the 
Colonel, " is my uniform, which I intend to wear to-mor- 
row." " You certainly can not think of appearing before 



CHAPEAU vs. GHIMNET-POT. Yl 

the Emperor and Empress in such a frightful suit of 
clothes as that — all the scrubbing in the world will not 
remove those spots of dirt ; not to mention that it would 
be shabby, even if clean," resumed the Minister. " Well," 
rejoined the Colonel, " it is the only uniform that I pos- 
sess. It is true that it shows the effects of service ; I 
don't think that the Emperor will think any the worse 
of it on that account. So I 7nust wear it, or not go at 
alh" This alternative was, of course, not to be thought 
of ; and, with a very uneasy feeling, Mr. Mason, after a 
short call, took his leave, promising to return on the mor- 
row punctually at twelve o'clock, to take up the Colonel 
and convey him to the Tuileries. 

The next day the Judge was punctual in keeping his 
appointment. Indeed, in his anxiety he somewhat an- 
ticipated the hour. He climbed up the four or five flights 
of stairs with much pufiing and blowing, and when he 
entered the Consul's drawing-room he found the Colonel 
quite ready, ensconced in his rusty blue, and with one of 
the inverted chimney-pots already referred to upon his 
head. The Minister gazed at him for some moments in 
speechless horror, and then broke out with, " I tell you 
what it is. Colonel, I can stand the uniform, but hang me 
if I will accompany you to the Palace unless you dis- 
pense with that frightful object which you have upon 
your head." " But what shall I do for a hat ?" queru- 
lously asked the Colonel. " This is our regulation cap, and 
if it is good enough to wear in the presence of the Pres- 
ident of the United States, it is certainly sufficiently so 
to wear in that of the Emperor of the French." But the 
Judge's foot was down this time, and he would not yield. 
So he and the Colonel and Mr. McRea sat down togeth- 



72 3£EM0RIES OF MANY 3IEK 

er, and, after a long consultation, it was decided that the 
latter should go to a shop and purchase a military chap- 
eau, which should be substituted for the obnoxious arti- 
cle. In the mean time it was getting late, and Mr. Ma- 
son was becoming fidgety and anxious. They all descend- 
ed the stairs together, and while the Minister and the 
Colonel entered the former's carriage, the Consul dashed 
on toward the Rue de la Paix in quest of the chapeau, 
for which the others were to await his return. Mr. Mc- 
Rea was absent a long time; he had to go all the way to 
the Rue Richelieu ; but just as the Judge was about to col- 
lapse from utter despair, he returned, triumphantly carry- 
ing in his hand an elegant laced chapeau, with a magnifi- 
cent tricolored plume attached to it. He hastily passed 
it in through the carriage window, and Mr. Mason or- 
dered the coachman to drive to the Palace. The Colo- 
nel held the chapeau in his hands, twirling it from side 
to side, and curiously eying it. At length he burst out, 
" Judge, you objected to my hat, but I'll be hanged if I 
will go before the Emperor with this one." "Why, what 
is the matter with it ''P asked the Minister. " Do you 
think that I will present myself to him with this infernal 
tricolored plume ?" was the rejoinder. "Well, then, take 
it out," said Mr. Mason. The Colonel proceeded to tug 
away at it, but without any success. Either he did not 
know how to detach it, or else it was too securely fasten- 
ed for him to do so. Finding that his efforts were in 
vain, he began to tear out the feathers one by one, and to 
throw them out of the window, until the vertical whale- 
bone alone, remained. While he was thus occupied, the 
Minister, after some preliminary hemming and hawing, 
addressed him somewhat as follows: "Colonel, vou are a 



A DIPLOMATIC CATASTROPHE. 73 

man of the world, and therefore there can be no occasion 
for me to caution you in regard to your bearing in the 
presence of their Majesties. But there is one thing which 
I desire you to keep in mind, and that is that the Em- 
press is a Spaniard, and extremely susceptible upon all 
questions affecting her own, country. The business 
wliicli took you to Madrid was one of a very disagree- 
able nature, and, I think that, in conversing with the 
Empress, you will do well to avoid even mentioning that 
you have been to Spain." "You are quite right, Mr. Ma- 
son," replied the Colonel ; " rest assured that I shall say 
nothing about it." The distance which they had to drive 
was but a short one, and by this time they had reached 
the Tuileries. They were promptly ushered into the au- 
dience-chamber, and a few minutes thereafter the Em- 
peror entered. Every thing passed off charmingly, and 
the gentlemen had been for some ten or fifteen minutes 
engaged in an easy and agreeable conversation, when 
her Majesty walked into the room, attended by a lady 
of honor. Colonel Sumner was presented, and some- 
how immediately lost his head. After the first words of 
courteous greeting, he appalled Judge Mason by telling 
the Empress that he had just returned from a visit to her 
native land, and regretted extremely that his business 
there was of such a nature that he was only able to re- 
main in the country two days. " Shall I be indiscreet if 
I inquire what was the character of the business which 
compelled so short a visit?" asked the Empress, in her 
sweetest tones. " Madame," replied the Colonel, in no- 
wise disconcerted, " I took to Mr. Soulb dispatches in re- 
lation to the Black Warrio?' outrage!" " How, sir !" ask- 
ed her Majesty, flashing with indignation ; " do you call 

D 



74 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

that an outrage — the vessel that took over Lopez and liis 
infamous gang of pirates ?" " I beg to observe to you, 
Madame," rejoined the Colonel, "that the Black Warrior 
was not even built until long after Lopez had been exe- 
cuted," " It matters not," answered the Empress; "you 
Americans seem to think that because France is engaged 
in a war with Russia you can insult Spain with impunity. 
Permit me to tell you that Spain is abundantly able to 
take care of herself, so far as you are concerned ; that if 
she is not, France is not so crippled but that she can 
come to her aid ; and that if, notwithstanding all, it shall 
become necessary to do so, w^e will liberate the negroes 
in Cuba, and thus revolutionize your own country!" "Ma- 
dame !" answered the Colonel, drawing himself up to his 
full height, " I beg to say, with the highest respect for 
your Majesty, that we are not afraid of Spain, that we 
are not afraid of Spain and France together, that we are 
not afraid of Spain and France together and the niggers 
in Cuba to boot !" How Judge Mason dashed from the 
Palace, wildly tearing his hair, Piatt used to relate with 
picturesque details. I do not know whether his story 
had much, little, or even any foundation in fact. Se non 
e vero, e ben trovato. 



CHAPTER V. 

SOMETIME during the month of December, 1854, we 
received at the Legation an answer from Governor 
Marcy, then Secretary of State, to the famous Ostend dis- 
patch iij^on the subject of the acquisition of Cuba, which 
was the result of a conference between Mr. Buchanan, 
Mr. Mason, and Mr. Soule, and had been jointly signed 
by these three diplomatic representatives of the United 
States in Europe. This answer not only took issue with 
almost every proposition enunciated in the trimie dis- 
patch, but, more than this, it assailed arguments and 
conclusions which had not been advanced in it at all. 
Mr. Mason was at a loss to comprehend this apparent 
waste of logic, although I do not think that he was per- 
sonally displeased with the issue of the business. For 
several days he and I did nothing but read over and talk 
about this document from Governor Marcy, and the pe- 
cuhar animus which inspired it continued as incompre- 
hensible to us at last as it had been at first. 

The same mail that brought to Mr. Mason his copy of 
this dispatch brought two other copies to Mr. Buchanan, 
at London. Of these, one was intended for himself, and 
the other he w^as requested to forward to Mr. Soule, at 
Madrid, by the hands of a confidential messenger — some 
person of approved trustworthiness and discretion. Aft- 
er keeping it about a fortnight, without finding any such 
person, he transmitted it to Mr. Mason, informing him of 



76 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEX. 

liis inability, and begging him to find means to forward 
it to its destination. Mr. Mason thought that Mr. Bu- 
chanan did this in order to save the expense of a mes- 
senger to the contingent fund of his Legation. How- 
ever that may be, when Mr. Mason received the docu- 
ment, he was at as great a loss as Mr. Buchanan had 
been to find a person who would undertake the task and 
to whom he felt justified in intrusting it. For several 
days Mr. Mason spoke to me about the matter, hovering 
around nearer and nearer, and at last he ventured to ask 
me, as a favor to himself and to the Government, to take 
charge of this dispatch. It was midwinter, and I knew 
what a journey to Madrid meant at that season of the 
year. I was reluctant to go, but could not make up my 
mind to refuse. So it was finally settled that I should 
leave Paris the next afternoon. 

Before I started, Mr. Mason over and over again 
warned me against the fascinations of Mr. Soule. He 
represented him to me as a perfect bird-charmer, and, 
while he desired me to be upon the most cordial terms 
with him, he was very much afraid that he would absorb 
me. Had he a recent experience of his own in mind ? 
I can not say. I had never met Mr. Soule, but I went 
to the encounter forewarned and forearmed. 

So far as Bayonne, the journey was a very easy one, 
being even then performed almost entirely by rail. There 
was only a short interruption toward its southern ex- 
tremity, where you were compelled to take the diligence 
for a few hours. I was so unfortunate as to reach Ba- 
yonne the very day after one of the English " Queen's Mes- 
sengers " had started for Madrid alone in his own carriage. 
Had I been in time, I am certain that he would have ex- 



RIDING SPANISH. YY 

tended to me tlie courtesy of a seat. As it was, I had to 
take the Spanish mail — a miserable, dilapidated, rickety 
vehicle, with accommodations for only two passengers. 
My chance companion was a young Mexican. We were 
some seventy-six hours on the road, and esteemed our- 
selves fortunate that we reached our destination at last 
without serious accident. We were not robbed, nor e^•en 
attacked, although we met at Yittoria the passengers of 
a diligence who had had a serious encounter with high- 
waymen. It is true that we upset twice, both times at 
night ; but as neither of us suffered any thing worse than 
slight contusions, we felt that, considering the condition 
of the road, we had every reason to be thankful. The 
cold was intense, and we had the full benefit of it, as 
there was not a window in our crazy conveyance that 
could be securely closed. I had a good provision of 
shawls and wraps, which proved, however, so insufficient 
that one evening, while we stopped at a post-house to 
change horses, I ran into a small j>osa(la attached to it, 
and purchased the blankets from one of the beds. 

We arrived at Madrid eai'ly in the morning, and I 
immediately proceeded to the Fonda de la Yiscaina, in 
the Calle Mayor, near the Puerta del Sol. After what 
the French call a copious breakfast, at about nine o'clock 
I started for Mr. Soule's house, which was situated at no 
great distance from my hotel. He M'as living entirely 
alone, and in great seclusion. His wife and son were 
somewhere in the French Pyrenees, and he had quarrel- 
ed with his Secretary of Legation, Mr. Peeet, and re- 
moved all the government archives to his own residence. 
I was at once admitted to his presence, and handed to 
him my letter of introduction with the dispatch. The 



78 MEMOBIES OF MANY MEN. 

former was most cordial. I should have mentioned that 
before I left Paris, Mr. Mason had stipulated that I 
should not be detained in Madrid more than two or three 
days, and this stipulation was incorporated in his letter 
presenting me to Mr. Soule. After the first compli- 
ments, as the dispatch was very voluminous, Mr. Soule 
obser^•ed to me that I had undoubtedly read it, and 
therefore could acquaint him with its contents. I pro- 
ceeded to do so, when he turned upon me almost fierce- 
ly, saying that I 7nust be mistaken, that Mr. Maecy never 
could have given utterance to such views. I quietly as- 
sured him that I was 7iot mistaken, that I had read the 
dispatch several times, and that Mr. Mason himself had 
been very much surprised by it. Finally he told me that 
he was so overwhelmed by the news that he found it 
necessary to be alone ; at the same time placing his car- 
riage at my disposal, and inviting me to return to dinner 
at six o'clock. Upon parting from him, I went over to 
the Foreign Office to call upon my friend the Vizconde 
DEL Ponton, whom I had known in "Washington several 
years before. The remainder of the morning I spent in 
the Royal Picture-gallery, which I have always thought, 
every thing considered, the most magnificent in the world 
— not forgetting Paris, Dresden, Florence, or Rome. 

After dressing for dinner, I returned to Mr. Soule at 
a little before six. I found him just where I had left 
him in the morning. "If you will believe me, Mr. 
Field," he said, " I have done nothing whatever since we 
parted but walk up and down this room, and read that 
dispatch over and over again. I could almost repeat it 
verbatim. My amazement is without limit. I am stunned. 
Of one thing only I am certain, and that is, that it is 



PIERRE SOULE. /^g 

tlie irresponsible work of Mr. Majicy. Tlie President 
can neither have inspired nor sanctioned it. You must 
dismiss from your mind all thought of leaving this place 
for some days. I require time to reflect and determine 
what course of action it is my duty to take under these 
most unexpected circumstances." 

I dined with him that day, and almost every other day 
for three weeks thereafter. Our party usually consisted 
only of ourselves and of a poor priest, whom Mr. Soule 
had saved from some political proscription by conferring 
upon him the title of Chaplain to the United States Le- 
gation. Notwithstanding the irksomeness of my deten- 
tion, I can never suiiiciently acknowledge the cordiality, 
kindness, and confidence with which I was treated by 
the accomplished Minister. It would be out of place 
here to enter into any discussion of his political princi- 
ples or his diplomatic career. But I can not refrain from 
saying that a more delightful companion, or a more thor- 
ough-bred man of the world, it has never been my fortune 
to meet. The life he led at that time was a singularly 
quiet and domestic one ; he seldom left his house unless 
called out by public business. His relations to the Court 
were, as they always had been, most friendly and inti- 
mate ; and if he was not liked by the aristocracy and the 
press, at all events they respected his courage. During 
his absence from Spain the previous summer, the news- 
papers assailed him, day after day, with the bitterest 
abuse, and with the most violent threats in case he should 
ever dare show himself again in Madrid. As soon as he 
returned, they became as silent as the grave, and up to 
the time of his final departure he was never again an- 
noyed by word or act. 



80 MEMORIES OF 31 ANY MEN. 

One afternoon I drove with him over the Toledo bridge 
to the ground of his famous duel with M. Turgot, the 
French Embassador, the particulars of which he explained 
to me upon the spot. A perfect reconciliation never took 
place between the combatants. It will be recollected 
that M. TcEGOT was severely wounded in the thigh, and 
rendered a cripple for life. For a long time he was eon- 
fined to his bed, and when I saw him in Madrid he walked 
painfully upon crutches. Many months after the duel 
Mr. SouLE had occasion to call upon the Minister of For- 
eign Affairs. He happened to be occupied at the mo- 
ment, and Mr. Soule was conducted to the ante-chamber 
to wait until he should be disengaged. There he found, 
in solitary possession, his old adversary, whom he had not 
met since they retired from the field of combat. ISTo rec- 
ognition took place between them, and the meeting could 
not fail to be awkward and embarrassing to both parties. 

A very intelligent American gentleman, who had re- 
sided a number of years in Madrid, explained to me his 
theory of the origin of the difiiculty, which struck me 
as very plausible. It was as follows : That very decided 
unpopularity had preceded Mr. Soule to Spain in con- 
sequence of his supposed views in reference to the Island 
of Cuba ; that he came there a Frenchman of humble 
birth, who had left his country at an early age on ac- 
count of his extreme political opinions, to represent a 
republic of which he had become an adcp'ed citizen. 
That he found there, as Embassador from imperial France, 
a nobleman of ancient lineage, whose family had for 
centuries been identified with the elder Bourbons, and 
who had himself but recently left the legitimist ranks. 
The result was what, perhaps, might have been naturally 



A BAITED MINISTER. gl 

expected. From the moment that they came together, 
M. TuEGOT exhibited a prejudice which he sought iieitlier 
to control nor to conceaL If Mr. Socle had been an 
American, instead of a Frenchman, this prejudice would, 
probably, not have existed at all, or, if it had, it would 
have been very much less decided and acrimonious. As 
it was, it manifested itself in a continuous series of petty 
slights, each too insignificant to be formally noticed, but 
in the aggregate extremely galling. Nor did the annoy- 
ance stop here. Others took their cue from the Embas- 
sador of France, so that the American Minister's position 
soon became a very uncomfortable one. Mr. Soule was 
not the man to brook this sort of thing long. And when 
he fought M. Tuegot, his object was probably as much 
to right himself generally with society, and earn its re- 
spect and fear, if not its love, as to resent the particular 
insult which brought about the issue. I do not assert 
the above to be positively true, but it is the surmise of a 
close observer of the circumstances at the time. 

"While I was in Madrid there was a Constituent Cortes 
in session, called into existence by the revolution of the 
previous June. I had a seat in the diplomatic box, and 
frequently attended its meetings. I have seen much of 
both houses of the British Parliament, of the French 
Chambers, of the Hungarian Diet, and of other delibera- 
tive assemblies at home and abroad ; but never have I 
seen elsewhere such an assemblage of dignified, elo- 
quent, and intellectual-looking men as composed that 
Cortes. Integrity and patriotism seemed stamped upon 
every countenance. And yet, if what I heard of them 
was true, such a body of political prostitutes and unprin- 
cipled knaves never before sat together in one room. 

D2 



82 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

Every evening hosts of the deputies were visitors at 
Mr. Soule's house. They would begin to arrive singly 
soon after dinner, and would keep on coming until one 
or two o'clock in the morning. Long after the lights 
were extinguished in the lower hall, gentlemen, muffled 
up in their cloaks so as to defy recognition, would ring 
at the 2)07't<^-cochere of the American Minister. I was 
never formally introduced to any of these persons, but 
the next morning Mr. Soule would inform me that I had 
met such and such a distinguished member of the Cortes 
the evening before. They represented all the parties 
and all the factions, and exactly for what purpose tliey 
came there I never could com2:)rehend. Since the Black 
Warrior business, all chances for the acquisition of Cuba 
by our Government seemed to be at an end. Up to the 
time of that unfortunate occurrence, Mr. Soijle was very 
confident that he would succeed in his efforts to negotiate 
the purchase of the island. If he had only had five 
hundred thousand dollars secret service money, he felt 
sure that he could accomplish it. The Cortes, being a 
constituent body, could do more radical things than an 
ordinary parliamentary one. lie would under no con- 
sideration attempt to corrupt the members — certainly 
not. But he would lend them money upon their own 
application, and thus as effectually secure their favor for 
the measure he desired to promote. Such diplomacy, I 
am happy to be able to say, our Government never re- 
sorted to in its better days ; and it is to be hoped that it 
never will do so in these more degenerate times. I be- 
lieve that Mr. Soule applied for, or at all events suggested, 
such a subsidy, but the application or suggestion was not 
for a moment entertained at Washington. Mr. Soule 



WHEEDLING A QUEEX. g3 

was convinced that lie had brought the ex-Queen Chris- 
tina entirely over to his views ; but I doubt, after all, 
whether that very astute lady was not rather the mysti- 
fier than the mystilied. He told me that he used to 
sj^eud wliole evenings in familiar ttte-d-tete with her, 
talking over the Cuban question. His line of agument, 
he said, was as follows : That Spain was in urgent need 
of a system of railways, and of other public improve- 
ments, in order to develop her resources. That her credit 
was at so low a point that it was impossible for her to 
borrow even sufficient money to make a commencement. 
That the one hundred or one hundred and twenty mill- 
ions of dollars which the United States were willino; to 
give for Cuba would accomplish this. That in answer to 
the objection that Spain had a large mercantile marine 
dependent upon the commerce of her West Indian colo- 
nies, and which would be deprived of employment if 
these islands, especially Cuba, should slip from her hands, 
he would guarantee that it should be stipulated in the 
treaty of sale that Spanish and American bottoms en- 
gaged in that trade should be upon precisely the same 
footing for ten years after the treaty should go into oper- 
ation. So that, from fxj>atriotic point of view, he did not 
see how her Majesty could hesitate. So far as her own 
personal interests were concerned, the case w^as an equal- 
ly strong one. She owned a very large property in Cuba. 
That property should be carefully secured to her by a 
secret clause in the treaty, and under American domin- 
ion it would be certain to increase tenfold in value. 
This argument ad homi^iem, or rather ad feminam, if 
she accepted the premises, was, I fancy, quite as likely to 
affect favorably .the royal mind as that addressed to her 



84 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK 

regard for the public interests of her country. However, 
as I have said, the Black Warrior business deranged 
all Mr. Soule's combinations. lie felt terribly incensed 
against our Government for their conduct toward him- 
self in that matter. The dispatch which Colonel Sum- 
nek had brought to him was very peremptory in its tone. 
In addressing himself to Mr. Luzueiaga, he adopted the 
precise language of Mr.MAECY to himself, only changing 
the formal commencement and ending. He threw down 
the gauntlet to Spain, as it were. The reply which he 
received was a snub in civil form — at all events, a re- 
fusal to comply with his demand. He entertained no 
doubt whatever that when news of that refusal should 
reach Washington, he would be ordered to demand his 
passports and leave Spain, and that war would follow. 
He considered it due to himself that, having literally 
obeyed instructions, he should be thus sustained. In- 
stead of which, after a considerable interval of delay, 
Mr.MAECY quietly instructed him to re -open negotia- 
tions! To him this was an intolerable grievance, for 
his opportunity in every way had passed. 

About ten days after my arri\al at Madrid, Mr. Soule 
had occasion to request an audience of Queen Isabella 
for the purpose of presenting an autographic letter from 
Pkesident Pierce, condoling with her upon the loss of 
I forget what relative. He was good enough to say that 
he desired me to accompany him upon the occasion. I 
objected that I had no uniform, which I presumed would 
be an insuperable difficulty in the way of my admission 
to the royal presence. But he told me that I had no oc- 
casion for concern on that account, as he would let me 
have one belonging to his son, which would do perfectly, 



PBEPARIXG FOB AN A UDIENCE. §5 

as we were about the same size. A number of days 
passed, and no notice whatever was taken of the applica- 
tion for an audience. Mr. Soul6 became daily more and 
more impatient and vexed, until he finally threatened to 
me that he would demand his passports for this personal 
insult, as he conceived it to be. I had a good deal of 
difficulty to quiet him, and induce him to refrain from 
any hasty and ill-considered action ; for his mind and 
temper were for many reasons in a very morbid condition 
at that time. At last, when I called at his house one 
morning, he informed me that he liad just been notified 
by the Minister of Foreign Affairs that the Queen would 
receive him at seven o'clock that evening, and that an 
earlier appointment had not been made because her Maj- 
esty had been indisposed. He promised to immediately 
look up his son's uniform, and to send it over to my hotel 
by five o'clock, and he desired me to meet him again, 
prepared to go to the Palace, at half -past six sharp. At 
five o'clock, instead of receiving the uniform, I got a let- 
ter from him, to the effect that he could not find it, that 
liis son must have taken it away with him, and that I 
must come to him in an ordinary evening suit, being 
careful, however, to wear black gloves, as the Court was 
in mourning, and that he w^ould answer for the rest. I 
had nothing to do but to comply, which I did with many 
miso;ivino;s. 

Mr. SouLE had an engagement to dine that evening 
with Lord Howden, the British Embassador. He wrote 
a note of excuse, stating that he had received the Queen's 
commands to present himself at the Palace. His Lord- 
ship replied that he would not excuse him, but should 
wait dinner until midnight, if he did not come sooner. 



36 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

Punctually at a quarter before seven o'clock, Mr. Soule 
and I entered his carriage to start for the Palace. He 
wore the Benjamin Franklin costume, which h^s been 
so often described, and which became him extremely 
well. It consisted of a black velvet coat, cut single- 
breasted, and with a standing collar elaborately em- 
broidered with black silk, black velvet breeches, black 
silk stockings, shoes with black buckles, a black dress 
sword, and a black chapeau without plume — every thing 
as black as Erebus. He looked as Edgar of Ravens- 
wood might have looked upon a state occasion ; his black 
eyes, black locks, and pale complexion completing the 
fanciful resemblance. 

The Palace at Madrid is situated at one extremity of 
the city, and directly over the Manzanares. It is a very 
elegant structure, but only one eighth of the size of the 
building originally projected. No finer apartment than 
the throne-room is to be found in any palace in Eu- 
rope. 

On arriving, we entered a large vestibule, paved with 
marble, and flush with the carriage-way in front. Here 
we found an extraordinarily numerous guard on duty. I 
never saw any thing like the number at any other sim- 
ilar place. As we passed them we uncovered, and they 
saluted us with a clang of their muskets which might 
have been heard to the distance of half a mile. Turn- 
ing to the right, we commenced, hat in hand, the ascent 
of the noble marble staircase. When we reached the 
first landing, a body of halberdiers stationed there, in a 
uniform of the sixteenth century, rang their halberds 
upon the stone tiles with deafening emphasis. Bowing 
our acknowledgments, we proceeded to mount the return 



SPANISH ETIQUETTE. 87 

flight. At the head of it we found more halberdiers, who 
did precisely as their compaijions below had done. We 
then entered a door to the left, and found ourselves in a 
spacious ante -chamber filled with officials in uniform, 
but without side-arms ; the inferiority of their grade be- 
ing thus indicated. These persons bowed to us in the 
most deferential manner ; but I could not avoid observ- 
ing that my plain black coat was attracting attention, 
and I began to feel decidedly uncomfortable. Maintain- 
ing oui' dignity by rather haughty and condescending 
salutations, we moved on into another room, very like 
the previous one, except that it was crowded with officers 
of superior rank loith side-arms. It was evident that 
matters were arranged upon the principle of a theatrical 
climax. Hence we emerged into the so-called " Embas- 
sadors' Waiting-room," which far excelled in size all 
the apartments through which we had reached it. It is 
here that the diplomatic body was summoned when a 
royal heir or heiress was expected to make its appear- 
ance. Tedious hours were sometimes sj)ent there upon 
such occasions. As soon as the baby was born, it was 
brought in upon a silver dish and exhibited to the as- 
sembled ministers, who thereupon attested the birth with 
due formalities. 

We moved up slowly to the farther extremity of the 
room, and stationed ourselves to the right of a closed 
door. Opposite us stood about a dozen of the highest 
grandees of Spain, headed by the diminutive Duke of 
Medina Celt, all in gorgeous array, blazing with stars 
and orders. They had just come from an audience with 
the Queen. After a moment's hesitation, the little noble- 
man above named crossed over with solemn deliberation, 



gg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

and, facing Mr. Soule, bowed nearly to the ground with 
overpowering gravity. He then turned to me, and sa- 
luted me with less formality. All the others in turn 
went through the same performance. Presently there 
advanced toward us a brisk, fidgety personage with gray 
hair. He proved to be the " Introducer of Embassa- 
dors," or, as he would be elsewhere called, the chamber- 
lain. Tapping a' gold snuff-box, he opened the lid and 
offered a pinch to my chief, behind whom I was stand- 
ing, at the distance of a step or two. " I am glad to see 
you well, Mr. Soule," he commenced, presenting his hand. 
" Your audience is, I think, set down for seven o'clock, 
and I believe her Majesty is ready to receive you." 

While he said this, his eyes kept wandering from Mr. 
Soule to me, and he scanned me from head to foot. 

After a moment's pause, he resumed: "But, Mr. Soule, 
you assuredly do not expect this gentleman to accom- 
pany you ?" 

" I beg your pardon ; I certainly do," answered Mr. 
Soule. " This gentleman is Secretary of the United 
States Legation at Paris " (I was only so, as I have ex- 
plained, ad interim). " He has come to me with very 
important dispatches, and for the present is attached to 
my LegatioiL There are very peculiar reasons M'hy I 
am anxious that he should see her Majesty on this occa- 
sion." 

" It is quite impossible, my dear sir — quite impossible. 
There are two insuperable objections. In the first place, 
no audience has been requested for him ; and, in the 
next place, he is not in uniform. It is only the other 
day that the French Embassador wished to present a 
gentleman connected with the diplomacy of his countiy, 



BAFFLING A CHAMBEBLAIN. 89 

who was in uniform, but for whom an audience had 
not been asked, and he was not allowed to do so." 

" Nothing," answered Mr. Soule, " would be farther 
from my wish than to violate the etiquette of her Maj- 
esty's Court upon a trifling pretext. This gentleman is 
not in uniform only because he left Paris in great haste, 
and brought none with him. As I have already said, I 
have special motives for wishing him to see the Queen, 
and, under the circumstances, I must request you to take 
her Majesty's _p(?;'5(9?2(2Z coinmands upon the subject." 

There was no answering this ; so the unfortunate 
chamberlain bowed with a rueful countenance, and went 
to refer the matter to the tribunal of last resort. 

As soon as the door closed upon him, Mr. Soule took 
my arm, and we slowly paced up and down the room. 
" It is all right now," he whispered to me ; " the Queen 
is the best-natured person in the world, and I am sure 
that she will not turn you away." 

His prophecy proved correct, for presently the " In- 
troducer of Embassadors " returned, and with a look in 
his face as if some dire misfortune had befallen the 
Spanish monarchy, said that her Majesty was ready to 
receive us both. 

ThereujDon he preceded us through a passage-way to 
the open door of a moderately sized drawing-room, upon 
the threshold of which he bowed profoundly, and then 
backed himself out of sight. 

As we entered by this door, Isabella II. entered by 
another door from the diagonal corner. The movement 
seemed to be a simultaneous one. I was a little behind 
Mr. Soule, to the right. The instant he perceived the 
Queen he bowed to the floor, and I followed his example, 



90 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

as lie bad instructed me to do in all things. At the 
same instant down came her Majesty in the way that 
school-girls call "making a cheese." One step with 
each foot, and the ceremony was repeated on both sides. 
And so on some six or seven times, until we met at a 
marble table in the centre of the room. Mr. Soule, hold- 
ing the President's letter in his hand, then commenced in 
a low tone a very fluent and elegant little speech in 
French, at the conclusion of which he laid the letter 
upon the table. While this was going on, the Queen 
stood with her right hand resting upon the table, and 
with a look which plainly indicated that she considered 
such business a bore. I had an ample opportunity to 
take mental notes of her appearance. If my impres- 
sions were not flattering, they were, at least, unpreju- 
diced, and I must sacrifice gallantry to truth. 

" The Innocent Isabel," as she was styled in her 
youth, is considerably above the average stature of her 
sex, and of ample dimensions every way. Her forehead 
is low, and her nose and chin unmistakably Bourbon. 
She wore a black dress very decolletee^ and the charms 
which it partly concealed were evidently of ponderous 
proportions. Upon her hands, which are very large, and 
which looked swollen, she wore lace mitts, not gloves, 
leaving the fingers bare. Her whole skin was red, and 
had the appearance of being affected by some cutaneous 
disorder, wdiich I have understood is the case, I certain- 
ly did not fall in love with her Majesty at first sight. I 
have heard others declare her handsome; but there is 
nothing about which there is a greater difference of opin- 
ion than female beauty. 

When Mr. Soule had finished his address, she replied 



ROYAL AFFABILITY. 9^ 

at less length, in remarkably good French, but with a 
very decided Spanish accent. This done, she drew a lit- 
tle sigh and paused a moment, and then abruptly asked, 
in a much louder voice, and with a total change of man- 
ner : 

" Well, Mr. SouLE^ and how is Madame Soule ?" 

" She was very well, your Majesty, when I last heard 
from her. She is in the French Pyrenees." 

" I tliought she could not be in Madrid, for I have 
missed her for some time. When you next write to her, 
remember me to her. Ah ! Mr. Soule, neither I nor my 
mother will ever forget your kindness during those hor- 
rible days of June." 

I can not say that the Queen's eyes were here suf- 
fused with tears, but her countenance exhibited much 
emotion. Her manner during the above dialogue had 
been as familiar as that of any ordinary well-bred per- 
son. In her last remark she alluded to the revolution of 
the previous June, when Chkistina's life was threatened, 
and when Mr. Soule alone of the diplomatic body offer- 
ed her the protection of his house and his flag. 

Mr. Soule then kindly turned toward me, and apolo- 
gized to the Queen for having brought me with him in 
so unceremonious a manner, explaining that, as I might 
not improbably see the President before long, he wished 
that her Majesty might avail herself of the opportunity 
to send to him any verbal message she might desire. 
She smiled, and gave me a commission which it is un- 
necessary to repeat, but which was full of kind and 
friendly expressions of feeling. She then asked me how 
much longer I intended to remain in Madrid. I an- 
swered only a few days, as I had already overstayed my 



92 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEX 

time. " Oh," slie replied, " you must certainly stop for 
my ball next week. Do you know, Mr. Soule, it will be 
my fii'st really gala ball since I have been upon the 
throne ?" 

" I should be most happy to do so, your Majesty," I 
rej)lied ; " but, in the first place, I have no uniform." 

" Oh, Mr. SorLE will manage that. Will you not, Mr. 
SouLE ?" 

" Certainly, your Majesty." 

" But then there is another impediment," I went on to 
say. "I am in the public service, and my instructions 
are to return to Paris the moment my business here is 
accomplished." 

" Now," she continued, with a smile, " if you w^ere a 
subject of mine, I would command you to wait. But 
you Americans are an independent and self-willed race. 
Still I presume that, if you will Jiot obey my orders, you 
will those of Mr. Soule. Mr. Soule, please order him 
to stay." 

" I order you, sir, to obey her Majesty's commands." 

I bowed, and said I would — but I didn't. 

After this hadinage, there followed a pause of suffi- 
cient length to indicate that the audience was at an end. 
Perceiving this, Mr. Soule backed a step and bowed as 
he had done on entering. I ditto. Majesty ditto. And 
so we kept it up, facing each other all the time, until at 
last both parties disappeared at the same moment through 
their respective doors. 

AVhen we again found oursehes in tlie Embassadors' 
Waiting-room, there was the old chamberlain, who evi- 
dently belonged to that genus of fossils who believe that 
a breach of etiquette is sufficient to make the firmament 



BAFFLED AGAIN. 93 

fall; Advancing to me, he put his arm aronncl my 
neck affectionately, and said : 

" Do you know, sir, that an exception has this evening 
been made in your favor which I venture to say has 
never before been made in the history of the Spanish 
monarcliy ? I am confident that no person was ever be- 
fore presented to a Spanish sovereign without being ei- 
ther in court-dress or in uniform !" 

I assumed an air of offended dignity, as if piqued by 
the impediments which he had at first thrown in my 
way, and replied : " I acknowledge the value of the com- 
pliment, but I can appropriate no portion of it to my- 
self. It all belongs to my Minister. I counted for 
nothing in her Majesty's condescension. She did not 
even know my name." 

" Well,"" he answered, " it was a compliment to both." 
But I stuck to my original proposition, in which I was 
unquestionably right. 

" We are going," he resumed, " to have a grand ball 
at the Palace next week, when the Court goes out of 
mourning. You must come." 

" I am much obliged to you," I replied ; " but I ha\e 
already received an invitation from the highest source — 
from her Majesty herself. If any thing could induce 
me to remain for the fete, it would be her gracious re- 
quest to me to do so." 

Thereupon the old gentleman had nothing further to 
say, except that he hoped to see me there. 

AVe shook hands with him and commenced our egress, 
which was accomplished in the same manner that our en- 
trance had been. When we got outside the abode of roy- 
alty, Mr. SouLE went to his dinner-party, and I went home. 



94 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

The most shocking and disgusting — I might ahnost 
say incredible — stories were told about the Queen at 
that time. All classes seemed to vie in speaking ill of 
her, and the foulest anecdotes about her private life were 
related to whomsoever would give a listening ear. In- 
deed, if 3'ou believed one half that you heard, all society 
in Madrid, emulating the example of the Court, was 
sunk to the lowest depths of social degradation. How- 
ever that may have been, I saw nothing any where but 
perfect decorum. 



CHAPTER YI. 

MR. SOULE treated me with imlimited confidence. 
He threw open his dispatch books to me, and in- 
vited me to examine the written history of his mission. 
I availed myself liberally of his offer. One day I came 
across a dispatch written by him to the Secretary of 
State, bearing about the same date as that of the famous 
Ostend Manifesto. The first paragraph in it referred to 
that document, and this induced me to read it with care. 
What was my surprise to find it a sort of " Key to Un- 
cle Tom's Cabin" — an elaboration and explanation of 
that manifesto ! Every point made in the manifesto was 
cleverly and craftily denuded of all diplomatic reserve 
in the dispatch, and pushed to the most extreme conclu- 
sions; and positions were taken far in advance of any in 
the joint document. It seemed to say to Mr. Makcy — 
" We spoke ambiguously, because it would not have been 
prudent to speak more clearly ; we said so and so, but we 
meant so and so." Here was the veil lifted from my 
eyes. I could now understand why Mr. Makcy had 
written as he had to the three Ministers. He had pre- 
sumed, or he had affected to presume, that this personal 
dispatch had been addressed to him by the Minister to 
Spain after he had submitted it to his colleagues, who 
were acting with him in the same business. I asked Mr. 
SonLE no questions upon the subject, because I felt that 
it would be indelicate for me even to suggest the possi- 
bility that he had given a personal interpretation to the 



96 MEMORIES OF MANY AIEK 

manifesto about which his associates M'ere not informed. 
But the incident made a deep impression upon my mind. 

While in Madrid I had frequent opportunities of seeing 
the Duke of Alva, brother-in-law to the Esiperok Na- 
poleon, whom I thought he very much resembled in per- 
son. I also saw the Duchess several times, at the opera 
and elsewhere. Although pleasing in appearance, she 
was not nearly so beautiful a woman as her sister, the 
Empress. The Opera-house at Madrid was at that time 
one of the most elegant and comfortable theatres in Eu- 
rope. The house belonged to the Government, which 
gave the use of it, rent free, to a first-class, responsible 
company. It was here that I first heard Yerdi's " Trova- 
tore," before it had been produced at all in Paris. 

I had been in Madrid more than two weeks, and was be- 
coming vej*y impatient'at my prolonged detention, when 
one afternoon Mr. Soule invited me to drive out with 
him. Up to this time I had daily had the exclusive use 
of his carriage, as he was not himself in the habit of go- 
ing out. After some preliminary conversation upon oth- 
er subjects, he told me that he had at last decided upon 
the course of action which was the best for him to take. 
That he was more and more convinced that Mr. Makcy 
was the person exclusively responsible for the change 
which had taken place in the policy of our Government 
regarding the Island of Cuba. That he felt sure that 
the President had not been a participant in the error, or 
that, if he had been, it would be easy to convince him of 
his mistake. He also felt terribly aggrieved by the Sec- 
retary of State, because he had not sustained him in the 
action which he took in the Black ^Yarrior business, al- 
though it was that ofiicer who had himself prescribed that 



3IR. SOULE RESIGNS IN DISGUST. 



97 



action. Under these circumstances, lie thought that, as 
Congress was then in session, his best plan was to return 
immediately to Washington, and manipulate that body 
in the interest of his own policy. There was but one 
difficulty in the way, and that was to determine to whom 
temporarily to turn over the Legation. That he had now 
seen me sufficiently to acquire confidence in my discre- 
tion, and he had the following proposition to make to 
me, viz., that I should accept the position of Charge d'Af- 
faires ad interim; that he would guarantee me the oc- 
cupation of the office for one year, and that I should 
have nothing to do but to be entirely inactive, except in 
obeying instructions to the letter, attending to the rou- 
tine business, keeping my ears open, and advising our 
Government fully as to every thing that should occur in 
Madrid directly or remotely affecting our interests. I 
immediately objected that, as there was a Secretaiy to 
the American Legation then*in office, I did not see how 
he could place its control in other hands. He answered 
that he had considered that, and that he w^ould be re- 
sponsible that a satisfactory arrangement would be made 
as soon as he should reach home. But I had other ob- 
jections, not necessary here to repeat, which rendered my 
acceptance impossible. I told him so very decidedly, 
and he seemed both disappointed and chagrined. "Well," 
he said, "there is then no alternative left to me but to 
resign." I felt distressed at appearing so ungrateful for 
all his kindness, and urged him as strongly as I could to 
reconsider this determination. But I failed to move him. 
His mind had evidently been made up to retire from his 
office in the event that he should be unable to make the 
arrangement which he had proposed to me. 

E 



98 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

This one matter settled, there was nothing to keep me 
longer in Madrid. Accordingly I had myself booked for 
the first vacant seat in the Malle-Poste for France, which 
was only to be obtained by applying several days ahead. 
During the interval I made repeated attempts to per- 
suade Mr. SouLE to reconsider his resignation, but all 
without effect. The last day of my sojourn in Spain I 
dined with him, and, while availing myself of that oppor- 
tunity to thank him for all his kindness and confidence, 
I asked him how much of what I had seen, heard, and 
read since I had been with him he desired me to con- 
sider personally confidential, and how much I was at lib- 
erty to communicate to Mr. Mason. He answered that 
he had no reserve whatever to impose upon me, so far as 
Mr. Mason was concerned ; that I was quite at liberty to 
speak to him with the utmost freedom about all that I 
had learned. " However," he said, " rest assured, and 
do all that you can to keep *Mr. Mason in the belief, that 
the question of the acquisition of Cuba is going to be 
the principal plank in the Democratic platform at the 
next national convention of the party. Xo one can se- 
cure the Presidential nomination at that time who shall 
/^ not be thoroughly committed to that doctrine. If they 
adhere firmly to it, either Mr. Mason or Mr. Buchanan 
will probably be the nominee ; and Mr. Mason is not the 
least likely of the two, because Mr. Buchanan has long 
occupied a position of party leadership which is sure to 
engender those animosities and jealousies which have so 
often proved fatal to the aspirations of our most distin- 
guished men. I, being a foreigner by birth, am consti- 
tutionally ineligible, even were I, which I am not, so 
conceited as to believe that, under any circumstances, I 



FAREWELL TO MADRID. 99 

might be selected. Besides, these gentlemen are equally 
responsible with me for the authorship of the Ostend 
dispatch, and, should they ever weaken in relation to 
the policy therein enunciated, the world would say that 
they had been tioisted around my finger ; and, certainly, 
two gentlemen of such distinguished talents would never 
permit this to be said of them in respect to so humble 
an individual as mj'self !" By the bye, I will here paren- 
thetically remark that I have always understood that the 
Ostend Manifesto was originally written by Mr, Soule, 
and that it was then re^•ised by Mr. Buchaxan ; but that 
it still remained so extreme in its utterances that neither 
he nor Mr. Mason would have signed it had they not 
been cajoled into so doing by their astute and specious 
colleague. 

Mr. SouLE then handed to me his resignation as United 
States Minister to Spain, addressed to the President, un- 
der cover to the Secretary of State, with instructions to 
have it forwarded from Paris to Liverpool, and placed 
on board a steamer there by a messenger, who should 
not be informed of the contents of the package with 
which he M'as charged. He also desired that the fact 
that he had resigned should be kept a close secret be- 
tween Mr. Mason and myself. It was, in fact, so kept, 
and the first knowledge of it in Paris M-as obtained 
through the medium of American newspapers. 

Mr. Soule accompanied me to the post-carriage, and 
saw me off. He took leave of me with the same cordial- 
ity with which he had all the time treated me. He has 
been dead now several years, and I never saw him after- 
ward. 

My journey back to Bayonne was not so disagreeable 



^ 



IQQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

as that to Madrid had been. At least we met with no 
positive mishaps. My comjpagnon de voyage was a 
charming young Spanish Marquis, and his agreeable 
conversation went far to make me forget the discom- 
forts of the road. 

I got back to Paris veiy early in the morning, and at 
about nine o'clock went over to Judge Mason's house to 
breakfast with him. After breakfast we retired to his 
private ofiice. I first told him about Mr. Soule's resig- 
nation, and handed it to him, and, before proceeding fur- 
ther, he made arrangements to forward it to Liverpool. 
I then gave liini an unreserved and circumstantial ac- 
count of my visit to Spain. I spoke to him of the private 
dispatch which accompanied the Ostend Manifesto, as- 
suming that he already knew all about it. But not only 
did its existence prove to have been unknown to him, 
but my communication threw him into a parox^^sm of 
excitement and indignation. Nothing that I could say 
had the effect of quieting him. At first he insisted upou 
immediately sending to Mr. Buchanan a full account 
of it — that very afternoon. I urged him not to be so 
hasty, as, with the view which he took of the matter, lie 
might seriously and unnecessarily compromise me with 
Mr. SouLE. With mucli effort, I succeeded in persuad- 
ing him to wait a few days. That very evening he was 
stricken, down by a paralytic stroke. A second stroke 
some years afterward proved fatal to him. I have al- 
ways surmised tiiat the excitement into which he was 
thrown by what I told him upon that occasion precipi- 
tated the first attack. 



CHAPTER VII. 

I FOUND upon my return that Donn Piatt the Sec- 
retary, was back from America, and my official re- 
lations to the Legation were thns terminated. I also 
found awaiting me an unsolicited commission from his 
Excellency Hoeatio Seymouk, Governor of New York, 
appointing me Commissioner from that state to the Paris 
Universal Exposition of 1855. There was already in 
Paris a number of Commissioners from other states of 
the Union, and the time had arrived to commence the 
preliioinary arrangements. Both the French Govern- 
ment and the Imperial Commission refused to hold of- 
ficial communication with these numei'ous American 
Commissioners, and tlie only course open to us was to 
organize as a body and appoint officers to represent us. 
In this manner I became President of the Board of 
United States Commissioners, and, as their representa- 
tive, was brought into relations with many distinguished 
people. I forget how many Commissioners we had in 
all. Certainly there were as many Commissioners as ex- 
hibitors, all of whom received their appointments from 
the Executives of their respective states, the Federal 
Government doing nothing in the premises. We had no 
money at our disposal except our individual means. I 
was compelled to expend a great deal of money out of 
my own pocket, for which I never received a return. 
My labors were very great, and sometimes of the most 



102 MEMOKIES OF MANY MEN. 

perplexing character. The greater number of my col- 
leagues had come to Paris for " a good time," and sup- 
posed that a passj)ort as Commissioner would aid them in 
having it; but very few of them had any notion of doing 
any work. Many of the exhibitors sent us their articles 
from home, leaving it entirely to us to take care of them, 
and make all the preparations for their exhibition. The 
exhibitors who came themselves, or who were represented 
by agents, gave us a world of trouble in various ways. 
Some sent articles totally unfit to be shown even in a local 
country fair. Others, in their unseemly scramble for de- 
sirable space, worried and harassed us almost bej^ond en- 
durance. I remember one of them, who called upon me 
in regard to an enormous stuffed American eagle which 
he had lost somewhere that morning in the Exhibition 
building. lie had wandered into it, speaking nothing but 
English, and with the eagle in his arms, in quest of the 
temporary ofiice of the American Commissioners. lie 
did not happen to light upon any one to whom he could 
make himself understood, and, after beating about from 
point to point, he finally brought up in the Prussian of- 
fice, where he deposited his eagle without explanations. 
When he returned for it, he got lost, and could not find 
the place where he had left it. In his distress he came 
to me. It took us a long time to find that eagle, but we 
finally did recover the hapless bird. 

The place assigned to us in the Palace of Industry, as 
it was called, was of large dimensions and most advan- 
tageously situated, facing, as it did, the main central 
entrance to the building. We had a large place upon 
the principal floor, and also another in the gallery di- 
rectly over it. No matter how one might spread them 



THE GREAT ''EXPOSITION:' IQS 

out, we had not articles enough to fill all this. Before 
any arrangements were completed, Sm William Logan 
and Mr. Stekey Hunt arrived in Paris with the complete 
and admirably selected collection of Canadian products. 
They found that Mr. Cole, the British Commissioner, had 
omitted to reserve any space for its exhibition, and all 
the room in the building liad been already assigned to 
the several nationalities. Having no other resource, they 
applied to me, and I was happy to have it in my power 
to place at their disposal our space in the gallery, for 
which we really had no use. As the United States, of all 
the peoples, made the very worst show for what they 
might have done and should have done,' so I think Cana- 
da made comparatively the best. The inhabitants of the 
provinces who desired to exhibit were requested to send 
their articles to Montreal, and then the Government pur- 
chased those which it considered worthy to be shown at 
the Great Exhibition. The Colonial Government was the 
exhibitor, but the individual inventors and producers re- 
ceived their measure of credit and profit. 

The sewing-machine people gave us a fearful amount 
of trouble. They insisted upon having the most consj)ic- 
uous places in the main building — and they constantly 
quarreled among themselves for the choice of these — in- 
stead of complying with the regulation of the Imperial 
Commission, which required all machinery to be exhibit- 
ed in the Annexe, or supplemental building. There were 
only a few of them in existence at that time. AVhat 
must it have been in Vienna this summer, now that 
there are myriads of them ? Well, they urged and press- 
ed us so that we were finally compelled to allow them to 
try the experiment, warning them, however, that they 



104 JUUlfOSIES OF MAXT MEX. 

would be certain to be driven from tbeir ground as soon 
as they began to operate. One afternoon, just before 
the Exhibition was formally opened, the Yankee girls, 
brought over for the purpose, took their seats at their 
machines, which were placed upon an elevated platform, 
and the buzzing and whirring commenced. Just at that 
moment Pkince Napoleon (Jerome), who was a,t the head 
of the Imperial Commission, happened to enter the build- 
ing upon a tour of inspection. Hearing the sound, he at 
once searched for the cause. When he perceived it, he 
rushed toward the unfortunate sewing-machines, and with 
an expressive gesture shouted to his assistants, '"' Balayez- 
moi tout cela /" (Sweep all that away !) I did not feel 
that I could conscientiously protest against this judg- 
ment, and so Singer and Grover & Baker and the rest of 
them were compelled to retire to the machinery hall. 

Our people took a great many prizes at the Exhibi- 
tion in projDortion to the number of exhibitors. Per- 
haps the most creditable exhibition of all was that of 
Goodyeae's articles of vulcanized India rubber. These 
were comparative novelties then, and were manufactured 
by Mr. Goodteak in France under his patents there, al- 
though his inventions had been made and perfected, and 
originally patented, in this country. After he had gone 
to a good deal of expense in fitting up the compartment 
which we had assigned to him, tlie French Exhibition 
authorities insisted that he should exhibit with them. 
This he was unwilling to do, and he desired us to make 
an energetic appeal. We were as anxious as himself to 
prevent another nation from appropriating to itself the 
credit of these admirable inventions. But in vain did I 
ascend the hierarchy of authority. They were all inflex- 



PLON-PLOK iQ^ 

ible. I pointed out to them that in their own list of 
printed questions which exhibitors were required to an- 
swer in writing was this: "Does the exhibitor present 
himself as manufacturer or as inventor f^ leaving it to 
be inferred that he had the privilege of exhibiting in ei- 
ther capacity. No ; they were determined to have Mr. 
GooDYEAE, and would not forego their claim to him. 
After much discussion, I determined to have recourse to 
Pkince ISTapoleon himself, and, with this object in view, 
I addressed him a letter, asking him when it would suit 
his convenience to grant me an audience. A reply 
promptly came, making an early appointment at his res- 
idence at the Palais Royal, or, as it was then called, the 
Palais Imperial. 

Prince Napoleon, as all the world knows, is the son 
of Jekome, the youngest brother of the first Emperor, by 
a daughter of the King of Wlirtemberg. A previous 
marriage of his father, contracted in extreme youtli in 
this country, with Miss Patterson, of Baltimore, was 
annulled ; and it has been decided, after litigation in 
France, that the rights of the issue of that marriage are 
limited to the use of the family name. The Prince has 
one sister, the beautiful Prestcess Mathilde, who sepa- 
rated from her husband, the Russian Prince DEmnoFF, 
on account of his alleged cruelty. This allegation seems 
to have been well-founded, inasmuch as the Emperor 
Nicholas espoused her cause, and compelled him to pay 
to her a handsome annuity as long as he lived. Prince 
Napoleon — or, as he is familiarly called, Plon-Plon — is 
tall and portly, but round-shouldered, and somewhat 
awkward in his gait. His head is of the unmistakable 
Bonaparte type, common to every member of the fam- 

E 2 



106 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

ily I have ever seen, except the late Emperor, who did 
not possess the faintest trace of it. So marked is this 
type, that any one familiar with it could not fail to in- 
stantly recognize it whenever he accidentally met one of 
the blood in any part of the world. It is a curious fact 
that the beautiful antique bust in the Vatican, at Rome, 
of the Emperoe Augustus when a youth, might perfectly 
serve for that of the Empeeoe Napoleon I. at the same 
age, and bears a strong likeness to all his family, with 
the single exception above mentioned. 

The Prince was in his youth a good deal under the tu- 
telage and guidance of his Imperial cousin, who treated 
him as a spoiled child, and whom he was as unlike as 
possible. Although a man of genius, and one of the fore- 
most orators of Europe, he has always been looked upon 
as a sort of enfant terrible; and with good cause, if one 
half of the anecdotes related of his indiscretion and vio- 
lence are true. It was rumored that terrible altercations 
frequently took place between himself and the wearer of 
the purple, to which he was heir-presumptive, until the 
birth of the Prince Imperial put his nose out of joint for 
the succession. The story goes that he once so far for- 
got himself, after an angry discussion with the Emperor, 
as to tell him that he was nothing but "a kite in an 
eagle's nest." This is said to have occurred previously to 
the Crimean "War. It will be recollected that the Pi-ince 
served in that war, but returned to France some time in 
the winter of 1854-5, before the surrender of Sebasto- 
pol. A few months later the Emperor made up his mind 
to assume command of the army in person, and went so 
far as to have his baggage forwarded to Constantinople. 
The Prince, who has a considerable taste for intrigue, 



AN ''EKFANT TERRIBLE:' IO7 

was very anxious to remain in Paris during liis cousin's 
contemplated absence ; Init this by no means accorded 
with tlie Imperial views. The Emperor is said to have 
told him that if he went himself he would insist upon 
his accompanying him, to which the Prince flatly refused 
his consent. Thereupon it is reported that the Em- 
peror put an end to the conversation by telling him that 
he should take him with him, if he had to take him in 
irons. The contemplated expedition never took place, so 
there was no occasion to execute this threat. 

AjpTO]]os of the Prince's Crimean campaign, his repu- 
tation for courage has never stood high with his country- 
men, and many reports to his disadvantage were circu- 
lated during the war. I happened accidentally to see a 
letter from Sebastopol, addressed by an officer of high 
rank to a friend in Paris, and describing one of the en- 
gagements — which particular one I can not now remem- 
ber. Among other things, he said : " Le Prince, a ma 
grande surpinse, s'est conduit a merveille" (The Prince, 
to my great surprise, behaved admirably). Great weight 
was attached to this reluctant testimony by those who 
knew the writer. 

The Prince at that time affected extremely radical po- 
litical opinions, aspiring to the leadership of the French 
Democracy. These pretensions did not then receive 
much recognition ; indeed, he was decidedly unpopular 
with the very class that he desired to conciliate. He 
could not show himself at one of the Parisian theatres 
without meeting with a very cold reception. The people 
seemed to have no confidence in his sincerity, and were 
indisposed to excuse certain acts of glaringly bad taste 
in his private life. The publicity with which he seemed 



108 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

to take pains to surround his relations with a distinguish- 
ed tragic actress, long since dead, offended the popular 
sense of propriety. The French are very particular about 
external decencies, and this extends even to those among 
them who are very liberal about private morals. They 
think, with the Spartans, that detection, and not crime, 
should be visited with punishment. Particularly, they 
can not endure that persons in high station should parade 
their immoralities before the public. Now it was said 
that the Prince used to drive at all hours to the residence 
of the lady referred to in an Imperial carriage, with 
servants in the Imperial livery, and that the carriage 
would frequently be left standing at the door a very long 
time, to the great scandal of the neighborhood. They 
said that upon one occasion h* was notified some time 
after he had entered the house, by a superior officer of 
police, that an indignant mob was collected outside, and 
that, unless the carriage was dismissed, he could not be 
responsible for the consequences. Many will undoubted- 
ly recollect with what severity Charivari used to handle 
the alleged relations between the late Duke of Orleans, 
father of the Count of Paris, and the same lady many 
years ago. 

To return to my interview with the Prince upon the 
subject of the exhibition of Mr. Goodyeae's India rubber. 
I had to wait a long time in the ante-chamber, as he was 
closeted with somebody else when I entered. This ante- 
chamber was a plain room, ornamented, however, with 
two objects of art (there were no others) which attracted 
attention. These were marble busts of Eachel, the one 
as Tragedy and the other as Comedy, placed on pedestals 
in diagonal corners of the room. 



THE BOURBONS' BLUNDER. 109 

After a while I was admitted to his presence, and I 
had no difficulty whatever in persuading him that I was 
right in my controversy with his official inferiors. The 
necessary orders upon the subject were given by him the 
next day, and they were peremptory and final. This mat- 
ter disposed of, we fell into a general conversation about 
a variety of subjects. All the time that it lasted the 
Prince was incessantly smoking cigarettes. Among other 
tilings, he asked me if I knew that when Charles X. es- 
caped from France to England, after the revolution of 
1830, he crossed the Channel in an American ship ? 

I told him that I never knew it, or, if I had known it, 
had forgotten it. 

" Yes," he said, " she was called the Charles Carroll, 
and a remarkably fine vessel she was. The King was ac- 
companied, among others, by a French Admiral and sev- 
eral naval officers, and he was standing surrounded by 
them on the quarter-deck shortly after they got under 
way. He had been silent for some minutes, when, look- 
ing up to the Admiral, he remarked, ' This is a magnifi- 
cent ship.' ' She is, indeed, Sire,' was the reply. ' Have 
we any equal to her in our commercial marine?' asked 
the King. ' We have not,' answered the Admiral. Here 
the King was again silent, and for some time kept his 
eyes fixed upon the deck. After a while he drew a sigh, 
and said, ' Ah ! that was the greatest mistake ever made 
in the history of the French monarchy !' ' To what do 
you refer. Sire V inquired the Admiral. ' To the es- 
pousal by my brother, Louis XYI., of the cause of the 
American Colonies against Great Britain,' he answered. 
And that is ray opinion, too," said the Prince, laughing, 
and slapping me playfully upon the leg. 



110 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

lie was quite riglit, in so far as tlie fate of the Boue- 
BON family was concerned. They joined us in our strug- 
gle, not because they loved us, but because they hated 
England. The establishment of a republic upon this 
side of the Atlantic precipitated the revolution of 17S9 
in France, cost the reigning monarch his head, and has 
cost his successors their crown. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

DUEING the months of May and June, 1865, Peince 
Napoleon had receptions at the Palais Imperial 
every Saturday evening. At these receptions were gath- 
ered together all tlie most distinguished people who 
happened to be in Paris. The number of invitations 
w^as very limited, there being never more than two hun- 
dred and fifty persons in the rooms at one time, so that 
there was no crowd. The apartments are very fine, 
much finer than those which were used for similar pur- 
poses at the Tuileries. The Prince, who was then a 
bachelor, did the honors, assisted by his sister. His fa- 
ther was only occasionally present. At my first visit, I 
was accompanied by the Mexican Secretary of Legation, 
Mr. EscANDON. When we got to the first door, an usher 
on duty asked our names and titles, that he might an- 
nounce us. My friend handed him his card. Not hap- 
pening to have one with me, I wrote my name upon a 
piece of paper, and under it, in French, " President of 
the Board of United States Commissioners to the Uni- 
versal Exposition." What was my dismay and mortifica- 
tion to hear called out, as I made my entrance, " The 
President of the United States !" Whether it was stu- 
pidity or malice, who could tell ? — probably the former. 
Fortunately for me, the Prince was standing with only 
one or two persons in the outer apartment. lie laughed 
meaningly as he gave me his hand, but made no allusion 
in words to my discomfiture. 



112 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

There was a most extraordinary galaxy of celebrities 
present that evening. Among others, I may enumerate 
the ex-Queen Chbistina, of Spain, with her husband, the 
Duke of Rianzakes, and her three beautiful daughters, 
the eldest of whom was the dashing Peincess Czartok- 
isKi ; Prince Luceen Bonaparte, from Rome ; the late 
King of Portugal, and his brother, the Duke of Oporto, 
the present King, the latter not being more than fourteen 
or fifteen years of age. 

The King was a slight, fair- haired, German -looking 
boy (his father was a Coburg), timid as a girl, and blush- 
ing whenever he was spoken to. He wore a pair of 
gloves immensely too large for his hands, which (his 
hands) he seemed to be in continual distress what to do 
with. He was almost swallowed up in the broad ribbon 
of a Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor of France, 
which etiquette required him to wear, the Emperor upon 
the same occasion wearing the broad ribbon of the Tower 
and Sword of Portugal, The Duke of Oporto was a 
rosy, plump, cool little fellow, incased in the oddest little 
dress-coat imaginable, the skirts of which were a mere 
apology for covering. 

Besides the foregoing, there were the late Duke of 
Brunswick, with thickly painted face, wearing a black 
silk wig, a black silk dress-coat, of extraordinary cut and 
of his own manufacture — and of which no civilized tailor 
would have been guilty — and solitaire diamonds, of enor- 
mous size and value, for waistcoat buttons ; the Duke 
OF Holstein, and I know not how many others. It will 
be remembered that when the DuivE of Brunswick w^as 
many years ago driven from his throne and his dukedom, 
he took the precaution to carry the crown-jewels with 



EUOENIE. 113 

him, and for the rest of his days he was famous as the 
greatest collector of diamonds in Europe. He was said 
to know more about them than any person engaged in 
the trade. His numerous other eccentricities were well 
known to the people of London and of Paris, in which 
two capitals, at different times, he resided nearly half a 
century. 

I had been for about an hour wandering from room 
to room, unintentionally overhearing at one time a very 
curious conversation between the Princess Mathilde 
and the Duke of Brunswick at the hitffet, when the Em- 
peror and the Empress arrived. After making a tour of 
the apartments, her Majesty seated herself upon a sofa 
in the largest of them, with a lady of honor at each side 
of her. I never saw her look so charming as she did 
that evening. She was, as usual at that time, most 
becomingly dressed. I say at that time, because when 
she first arrived from Spain she indulged in the strong 
colors and decided contrasts which the ladies of that 
country, when not in faultless black, affect, and the 
French dressmakers had great difficulty in correcting this 
bad taste. When she first took her seat, as I have men- 
tioned, I was standing, at some distance, directly opposite 
the sofa ; and I found it so agreeable an occupation to 
look at her, and was so protected from the appearance 
of exceptional intrusiveness by having others near me 
similarly employed, that I did not move. I noticed that 
the Emperor was standing at her right, conversing with 
the Papal Nuncio, but, after observing the fact, I bestow- 
ed no further attention upon him or his movements. A 
few minutes had thus passed, when somebody, whose 
approach I had not seen, said good-evening to me in 



114: MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

rreiicli. I hastily turned, and to my amazement recog- 
nized the Emperor. I understood perfectly that he must 
have some particular reason for addressing me, one of 
the veiy least distinguished or conspicuous persons pres- 
ent. After a few commonplaces, he remarked that he 
had that afternoon walked through our department of 
the Exposition (this was just before it was opened to 
the public), that he had seen many things there which 
interested him, but that nothing had so much pleased 
him as Mr. Goodyeak's vulcanized India rubber. That 
among Mr. Goodyear's articles, however, he had noticed 
something which had mfrigued him then, and continued 
to intrigue him ever since. That he very much regret- 
ted that I was not present at the time of his visit. Here 
I interrupted him to say that I very much regretted it 
myself, and that, if he had sent me an intimation of his 
purpose, I would have been certain to attend. " Well," 
he answered, " In one corner I saw, stacked as one sees 
them in an artillery -yard, a pile of vulcanized India-rub- 
ber cannon-balls ! There was nobody there to answer 
the inquiries which I desired to make. Perhaps you can 
explain the matter to me." I had not even seen the 
balls in question, and had to say so. " I can not imagine," 
resumed his Majesty, " how any preparation of India 
rubber can be used iov projectiles. It has often occurred 
to me that, in combination with other materials, it might, 
from its quality of elasticity, be made useful for defe7is- 
ive purposes — for instance, in breastworks." I was com- 
pelled to admit that it was equally mysterious to me how 
Mr. GooDYEAK could have seriously thought of making 
cannon-balls of it. After so unsatisfactory an interview, 
the Emperor probably did not think that it would be 



INDIA-RUBBER CANNON-BALLS. 115 

civil to immediately leave me. So he asked me if I 
took much interest in military matters. I answered that 
I did not any more than civilians usually do. He then 
asked me if I had noticed the new cuirasses which he 
had just given the Imperial Guard. I told him that I 
had ; but that I knew nothing of the difference between 
them and the old ones, except the appearance. " Well," 
he said, " I will tell you. They weigh so much less," 
stating a very long fraction, " and their power of resist- 
ance is so much greater," mentioning one that was equal- 
ly long. He then went on to explain to me various mat- 
ters of military detail, and finally asked me if I had 
heard the news of a French success in the Crimea which 
had that afternoon reached Paris. I replied that I had. 
"^A h'lenP he said, stroking his moustache and smiling; 
" Cest encourageant, mats nous somines encore asses 
loin de SebastojpolP' (Well ! it is encouraging; but we 
are still far enough off from Sebastopol !) With this 
observation, which would have affected the stock markets 
of Europe had it reached the Bourse, he bowed and 
withdrew. 

I was at that time residing in the Champs Elysees, 
very near the Palace of Industry. The next morning I 
went over before breakfast for the purpose of obtaining 
information upon the subject which had so intrigued the 
Emperor. I went directly to Mr. Goodteak's compart- 
ment, and, sure enough, found the balls there, just as they 
had been described to me. It was too early for me to 
expect to see Mr. Goodyear himself, but there was a per- 
son in charge. I asked him what in the world he ex- 
pected to do with India-rubber cannon-balls. "They 
are not cannon - balls," he answered ; *' they are foot- 



116 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

balls !" I am sorry to say that I never had the oppor- 
tunity to set the Emperor right npon the subject. 

Among my fellow-Commissioners to the Exposition 
was my good old friend Hoeace Geeeley, It was at 
that time in Mr. Geeeley's career when he still affected 
very old white overcoats and equally old white hats. 
This peculiarity of summer attire caused him to attract 
more attention on the street in Paris than would have 
been attracted by a score of Japanese, Chinese, and South- 
Sea Islanders. Of this he appeared serenely unconscious. 
I remember one high-priced or gala day at the Exhibition, 
when all the fashion, elegance, and distinction of Paris 
were assembled there. Wliile I was standing in our 
own part of the building, Hoeace entered in his usual 
costume. Telling me that he wanted to show me some- 
thing, and seizing me by tlie arm, he started off, with his 
peculiar plowman's lope, dragging me along througli a 
space which the astonished visitors opened for us on 
either side. Wonder was expressed upon every face. 
All the way down the principal gallery we went, until 
we reached its farther extremity, a distance which I 
would be afraid to express in feet. What he desired to 
show me was well worth seeing. It was some specimens, 
in the Austrian department, of printing and book-bind- 
ing, executed at the Imperial Press in Vienna, which ex- 
celled every thing else of the same character to be found 
in the Exposition. 

A very droll circumstance happened in connection 
with this visit of Mr. Geeeley to Paris, w^iich he has but 
partly described in his " Kecollections of a Busy Life." 
I will only relate what occurred under my own pei'sonal 
observation. 



HORACE GREELEY IN TROUBLE. 



117 



I liad issued invitations for a dinner to ray fellow- 
Commissioners and other distinguished gentlemen from 
the United States, to take place at the Trois Freres 
ProveTK^mox on Saturday evening, June the second, at six 
o'clock. I arranged with Mr. Piatt to come to the Le- 
gation at half-past five, when he was to drive me down 
to the restaurant. My own residence was in the imme- 
diate neighborhood of the Legation, and Mr. Piatt occu- 
pied an apartment in the same building with it. At a 
little before the api3ointed time I started from home to 
keep the engagement. As I turned into the street upon 
which the Legation building was situated, I saw an ordi- 
nary ^^crig, or street-cab, drawn up before the door, and 
Piatt standing, in his shirt-sleeves, talking to its occu- 
pants. They were three in all, two of them upon the 
back seat and one upon the front seat. As I approached 
nearer, I recognized one of those upon the back seat as 
Horace Gkeeley, w^ho was to dine with me that day. 
The other two were very ordinary-looking Frenchmen. 
All were talking and gesticulating violently, and as Mr. 
Gkeeley spoke no French, and Mr. Piatt very little in- 
deed, and the two Frenchmen no English, the whole was 
a Babel of unintelligible jargon. The moment that Mr. 
Gkeeley saw me coming, his countenance, which had 
hitherto worn an expression of the deepest distress, was 
illumined by a ray of hopeful satisfaction. AVhen I got 
near enough to hear him, he explained to me that he had 
been arrested at the instance of a French sculptor, who 
had sent a statue for exhibition to tlie World's Fair at 
New York, of which Mr. Gkeeley was one of the man- 
agers, because this statue, which he valued at fifteen 
thousand francs, or three thousand dollars, had been re- 



llg MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

turned to him in a mutilated condition. He claimed 
that the managers had guaranteed the safety of all the 
articles exhibited, and that therefore Mr. Gkeeley was 
responsible to him for his loss. Hence he had com- 
menced a civil action for damages against him, and had 
obtained an order for his arrest. That he was taken be- 
fore the judge who had granted the order, and that the 
magistrate had consented that the huissiers, or bailiffs, 
who had him in charge should accompany him to the 
American Legation, and had ordered that, if the officers 
thereof would agree to become responsible for the 
amount, in case judgment should go against Mr. Gree- 
ley, he was to be forthwith released. I translated this 
statement to the bailiffs, who admitted its correctness in 
all respects except as to the conditions for the release. 
They said that the judge's instructions to them were not 
to let Mr. Gkeeley go nnless some gentleman of the Le- 
gation w^ould consent to make a deposit in money of the 
sum at issue. When I told this to Mr. Gkeeley, he em- 
phatically denied its accuracy, and made an effort to el- 
bow himself out of the cab, in order to enforce his ex- 
planations to me more at his ease. Seeing this, the bail- 
iffs supposed that he was endeavoring to take sanctuary 
within the Legation, where, by international law, it would 
be impossible to arrest him. So they shoved him back 
with some show of force, and, getting out themselves 
upon the sidew^alk, tied their tricolored scarfs around 
their waists. At this proceeding Mr. Piatt laughed sar- 
castically, which threw them into a terrible passion. 
They desired to be informed if he intended " to ridicule 
the coloi-s of France." Piatt's hilarity continued, and 
it was all that I could do to brino- matters back to the 



CARRIED OFF TO CLIGHY. HQ 

basis of quiet discussion. In the mean time, Mr. Gkee- 
LEY, paralyzed by the efforts which he had made, was sit- 
ting back in the cab with the most woe-begone look of 
martyrdom upon his face that can be imagined. Final- 
ly, finding that the officers were inexorable in carrying 
out the judge's order, as they understood it, I offered to 
draw my check for the amount involved. This propo- 
sition they discussed for a moment between themselves, 
and then declined it as unacceptable, upon the not un- 
reasonable ground that, as it was long after bank hours, 
it would be impossible for them to ascertain that night 
whether the check was good or not. There, therefore, 
remained nothing farther to be done. When I commu- 
nicated to Mr. Greeley the failure of all my efforts to 
save him from Clichy, the apathy of despair overcame 
him, and he exclaimed, in that piping treble which we 
all remember, " Take me to jail ! take me to jail !" As 
lie was about to be driven off, we assured him that every 
thing possible would be done to effect his liberation upon 
the morrow. The bailiffs re-entered the cab, and it drove 
away. 

By this time it was nearly half-past six, and Mr. Piatt 
vv'as not yet dressed. The first thing done was to dis- 
patch a messenger to Mrs, Greeley, at their residence 
somewhere outside the Arc de I'Etoile. Then Mr. Piatt 
made a hasty toilet, and we started for the Trois Freres. 
A roomful of angry gentlemen was awaiting me, indig- 
nant that the host was not only not present to receive 
them upon their arrival, but had actually kept them 
waiting three quarters of an hour after the time ap- 
pointed for dinner. This necessitated a public explana- 
tion from rae of the cause of my delay, which I made 



120 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

upon the spot. lu this way the most prominent Ameri- 
cans then in Paris were informed tliat their expected 
fellow -guest and distinguished countryman, Hoeace 
Gkeeley, was to spend that night behind the bars of the 
debtors' prison of the Rue de Clichy. 

With this single drawback, the dinner passed off, I be- 
lieve, to the entire satisfaction of all j^resent. Among 
the convives were Mr. O'Sullivan, Minister to Portu- 
gal ; Mr. Belmoisit, Minister to Holland ; General Thom- 
as, Assistant Secretary of State ; Charles Astor Bkis- 
TED, Esq. ; several United States Consuls ; and all my fel- 
low-Commissioners — whose name was legion. The Hon. 
A. C. Dodge, the newly appointed Minister to Spain, left 
for the Peninsula that morning, and thus deprived me of 
the expected pleasure of his company. Mr. Mason was 
too ill to attend, but he sent me a very feeling and com- 
plimentary letter of apology. The authorities so little 
understood American gentlemen that they had expressed 
some anxiety, which had reached my ears, lest the oppor- 
tunity should be availed of to ventilate revolutionary 
doctrines, and possibly insult the Imperial Government. 
The difference does not yet seem to be every where un- 
derstood between the orderly and elevated republicanism 
of the United States and the pandemoniacal red repub- 
licanism of Continental Europe. Thank Heaven ! they 
have nothing in common. 

The next, Sunday, morning, without any unseemly hur- 
ry, I went to the Clichy Prison, at about ten o'clock. 
Upon presenting my card, I had no great difficulty in 
gaining admittance into the warden's room, and thence 
I was gradually forwarded to tlie interior of the prisoi], 
after a series of innumerable checks and receipts. - The 



SEEING GOOD SOCIETY. 



121 



prisoners were allowed to receive their friends on San- 
day, but it was almost as difficult to get into the place as 
to get out of it. It seemed that during all the previous 
hour there had been a constant stream of visitors for 
Horace Geeeley, and the prison authorities were be- 
wildered to imagine who their singular-looking but evi- 
dently distinguished new charge could be. Finally 1 
penetrated to the large common room in which the pris- 
oners and their friends were assembled. It presented 
altogether a singular scene. In one corner squatted a 
laboring man in his blouse, surrounded by his wife and 
children, who had brought him some delicacies for his 
Sunday dinner. In another corner lounged a fashiona- 
bly dressed young gentleman, evidently of the genus 
fast, in earnest conversation with a still more fashiona- 
bly dressed young woman, as evidently of the genus 
faster. The room was filled with the most strangely 
contrasted groups. Standing in the middle of it, wear- 
ing his old white overcoat, and with his hat on the back 
of his head, his countenance wreathed in smiles, flanked 
on either -side by a United States Minister, stood Horace 
Greeley. To refrain from laiighing was impossible. 
" Mr. Greeley," I saidj " you irresistibly remind me of 
Parson Adams in jail !" His lassitude and alarm were 
all gone, and he was in the very highest spirits. " Field," 
he replied to me, "this has been one of the most fortu- 
nate incidents in my life. Without it, I doubt if I ever 
shojild ha\-e had the opportunity to see good society. 
You know that I know nothing about it at home. I 
have never associated with the people who compose it 
there. I dare say they are very good people, but tbey 
are not my people. Now we have two classes of in^ 

F 



]^22 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

mates here — aristocrats and plebeians. Scarcely had I 
arrived last evening, when I was waited upon by a dele- 
gation of the aristocrats, and invited to join their mess. 
Of course, I accepted. We breakfast at ten and pay 
three francs, and dine at half-past six for four francs. 
The pleheians breakfast and dine earlier, and at much 
lower prices. Last evening at dinner we had a f)rince 
at the head of the table, and I was flanked on one side 
by a count and on the other side by a baron. If I only 
remain here long enough, I shall not only learn the 
French language, but good manners into the bargain." 
And so he ran on, his auditors hardly knowing whether 
they were laughing with him or at him. All our efforts 
to get him out that day were, however, fruitless. We 
sent for lawyers in every direction, but all the lawyers 
were amusing themselves, and none of them could be 
found at liome. On Monday Mr. Greeley was restored 
to liberty. 

When Mr. Piatt used to tell the story, more s2co, he 
related that as soon as Mrs. Gkeeley heard what had 
liappened, she immediately proceeded to pack Mr. Gree- 
ley's luggage, which consisted of a fine-tooth comb and 
a night-shirt, and then incontinently rushed to the prison. 
That the moment she was introduced to the presence of 
her husband, she frantically threw up her hands and ex- 
claimed, " Why, father !" to which he responded, with a 
like gesture, " Why, mother !" I fear that this was an 
apocryphal joke of Piatt's. 

At the trial of his case, Mr, Greeley came off victor. 



CHAPTER IX. 

nnilEEE M'as a very odd fish iu Paris during the sura- 
-■- mer of 1S55. He came from somewhere on our 
western frontier, and crossed from Xew York to Havre 
in the North Star. He dressed in a complete suit of 
furs, and during the voyage slept on deck every night. 
He appeared to be a very intelligent man, and had plenty 
of money, but was very eccentric, and even disgusting, in 
his habits. He stopped at Meurice's Hotel, in Paris, and 
soon became the wonder of the crowds of cockneys who 
frequented that house. Standing in the centre of the 
court-yard, and describing around him a magic circle of 
tobacco-juice, lie would tell the most marvelous stories, 
with a look which plainly said, '' You had better not ex- 
press any doubts, if you do not want a bowie-knife be- 
tween your ribs." A highly cultivated friend of mine, 
who had made his acquaintance, was once guilty of the 
imprudence of inviting him to walk. After a time they 
arrived at the Cathedral of Xotre Dame, which they en- 
tered. As soon as they had done so, the frontier's-man 
began to look about, as if anxiously searching for some- 
thing. Presently he espied a marble font, or receptacle 
for holy water. His face at once lit up, and, advancing 
to within six feet of it, lie with the most accurate aim 
discharged a stream of tobacco-juice directly into it. A 
sacristan, who happened to be passing, came up, full of 
exasperation at the sacrilege. It was diificult to persuade 



124 3IEMdklES OF MANY MEN. 

him that the stranger thought the font was intended for 
a spittoon. 

The American students — humanes they called them- 
selves — in the Latin quarter were a queer set. Among 
them were two young medical men from Louisiana, who 
had come over to enter the Russian service, but had 
never ffot farther than Paris. One of them carried a 
card, which he seriously presented to every Frenchman to 
whom he was introduced, on which was engraved for a 
crest a device of two alligators fighting with their tails, 
and beneath that the name Le Baron cV AttaJcajMs. 
The crest of the other was a stalk of sugar-cane, and he 
sported the name of Le Comte de Plaquemine. 

I met in the street one day an acquaintance from New 
York, and not a very young man either, who was making 
his first visit abroad. He was delighted to see me, for 
I spoke French and he did not ; and I was supposed to 
know all the ropes, whereas he had just arrived. The 
first business to be attended to, as is usually the case with 
traveling Americans, was a visit to the tailor. This was 
dispatched. Then came the bootmaker's turn. This was 
likewise attended to. Then some pocket-handkerchiefs 
w^ere required, which it was desired should be very elegant. 
So I took my friend to Doucet's, on the Hue de la Paix. 
When we entered the shop, it so happened that neither 
M. DoucET nor any of his assistants were in ; they had 
retired temporarily somewhere into a back room. Lying 
on a counter were some beautiful specimens of cambric, 
each elaborately embroidered in one corner with a coro- 
net and initials. They at once attracted my friend's at- 
tention and admiration. Lie asked me what the coronet 
meant. I explained to him that it indicated that the 



THE AMEEICAN EAGLE SOARS. ^25 

owner was a nobleman. This he doubted ; he fancied 
that the coronet might be only an unmeaning ornament. 
He had a great mind to have some handkerchiefs similar- 
ly embroidered. I begged him not to think of doing any 
thing so ridiculous, and just then M.Doucet, who spoke 
English, re-entered the shop. " Whose handkerchiefs are 
these, M.Doucet?" I asked. "They belong to Prince 

P , a Russian," was the reply. I supposed that this 

explanation would silence my companion, and so for a 
time it did. At length a happy thought seemed to strike 
him, and he abruptly asked the tradesman if he could 
not embroider an American Eagle upon some handker- 
chiefs for him ! Doucet could hardly keep his counte- 
nance, lie replied, with as much gravity as he could 
command, that it might undoubtedly be done, but that 
he was not acquainted with the peculiarities of our na- 
tional bird. Thereupon my friend triumphantly drew a 
silver dollar from his pocket, and tlirew it upon the coun- 
ter ! The handkerchiefs were selected, and the order 
was booked, and, I presume, executed ; but I made no in- 
quiry, and registered a mental vow that from that day 
forward I would ne\-er again allow myself to be per- 
suaded to accompany an Amei'ican upon a shopping ex- 
pedition. 

And yet I once unintentionally broke my vow. I had 
turned from the Boulevard des Italiens into the Eue de 
Richelieu one day, when I was overtaken by an Amer- 
ican Envoy Extraordinary, who had just reached Paris 
on his way to liis residence. He was a man of gigantic 
stature, w^ho had been a Senator from one of the West- 
ern States. On his right shoulder he carried a horrible 
baby, about a year old, clad in an abominable pink flan- 



126 3rE3I0RIES OF 3IANT MEK 

nel dress ! Of course, the distinguished diplomatist spoke 
no French, or he never would have been appointed to 
represent the Stars and Stripes any where upon the Con- 
tinent of Europe. He was in quest of a trunk, and he 
forthwith pressed me into the ser\ice of aiding him to 
effect tlie purchase of one. The attention which that un- 
happy baby — which made itself heard as well as seen — at- 
tracted to us was enough to drive a civilized beinc: mad. 
The father, however, accepted it with the utmost serenity. 
I have been unsuccessfully trying to recall the name 
of the Italian shoemaker who fired at the Emperor on 
the Cliamps Elysees some time in the spring or early 
summer of the year 1855. He was an emissary from 
London, but died, if I recollect aright, without disclosing 
the names of his confederates. He had provided him- 
self with two pistols — one a revolver, and the other 
an ordinary double-barreled pistol. He fired two shots 
from the side of the road at his Majesty, who was on 
liorseback and quite near him, but neither of them took 
effect. I happened to be in a carriage with some friends 
at a distance of only a few hundred yards in the rear, 
near enough to see the puffs of smoke. I then noticed 
the immediate gathering of a group of people, and ob- 
served a man being dragged into a cab. We were on our 
way to the Bois de Boulogne, and, anxious to ascertain 
what had happened, Ave ordered our coachman to drive 
on rapidly. AVhen we reached the Barriere de I'Etoile, 
we stopped a moment, and, in answer to our inquiries, 
were informed that the Emperor had been fired at, that 
he had escaped any injury, and that he had pushed on 
for the Bois, escorted by his aids, ISTey and Fleuey, on 
horseback. TVe were also told that the Empress and her 



AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION. 127 

ladies, in two Court carriages, had preceded liim some ten 
minutes, and could as yet know nothing of the occur- 
rence. With the hope of overtaking him before he 
reached the Bois, we put our horses to the top of their 
speed. But he must have ridden very rapidly, for we 
saw nothing of him until we came to the lake, when we 
observed the mounted party, followed by the carriages, 
coming toward us on their return. We at once reined 
up on the side of the drive, and, standing uncovered, 
awaited their approach. The Bois was very crowded 
that afternoon, but the news of the occurrence had evi- 
dently not yet reached there. As Napoleon passed us, 
we saluted him, and in so significant a manner that he 
could not doubt that we knew of the attempted assassi- 
nation. He bowed in return, and I shall never forget his 
look. His teeth were closely set, and his face was liter- 
ally of the color of old parchment. That this indicated 
fear, I do not for a moment believe. The man did not 
know what fear is. It only exhibited the strong emotion 
under which he was laboring. When the Empress came 
up, she was smiling and chatting with the lady on her 
left, and was evidently entirely ignorant of the fact that 
her husband's life had just been in imminent peril. As 
soon as the cortege passed, we wheeled into line and 
tried to keep up with it. But we could not do so — our 
horses were not equal to the task ; and when the Imperial 
party reached the Triumphal Arch, we were already a 
long way behind. By this time the news had spread 
through Paris like wild-lire, and the Avenue of the 
Champs Elysees was one dense mass of human beings. 
Every where as the Emperor appeared he was vocifer- 
ously cheered, and he had not proceeded far before 



128 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

the pressure became so great that he was compelled to 
dismount from his horse and walk the rest of the way to 
the Tuileries. 

Among the many talents which the Emperor possessed, 
he was said to be unsurpassed as a judge of horses. As 
a rider, I never saw his equal, unless it was the late King 
of Holland. Insignificant on foot, he was superb on 
horseback. From the length of his body, he looked like 
a tall man wdien mounted, and he and his steed composed 
a perfect centaur. To see hira thundering along at a re- 
view with the cent gardes at his heels was a magnificent 
spectacle. 

It was not very often that he was seen in a carriage. 
Occasionally he got himself up in gorgeous attire and 
accompanied the Empress for a drive. And sometimes 
of a morning you met him driving with his own hands a 
pair of spanking baj's up the Avenue of the Champs 
Elysees, accompanied by a single groom. But he went 
mostly on Iiorseback. He commonly M'ore, when riding 
for pleasure, an old blue frock-coat, the seams of which 
were white from wear, and he indulged in a pair of old 
linen or cotton gloves distressing to behold. 

His tact was great, and he sometimes did things very 
gracefully. When the Russian war was over, he deter- 
mined to make General Bosquet a Marshal. Accord- 
ingly he invited him to a grand dinner at the Tuileries. 
After the cloth was removed, the Emperor requested all 
present to fill their glasses for a toast. He then pro- 
posed the health of Marshal Bosquet, who was taken 
entirely b}' surprise. 

While the works for the completion of the Louvre 
were going on, the Emperor used often to stroll there, 



A ROYAL ANXIOUS MOTHER. 129 

cigar in month, to watch their progress. Upon one oc- 
casion he had not been there long when he noticed a 
gronp of stone-clitters talking together earnestly. Pres- 
ently one of them, cap in hand, advanced toward him in 
a hesitating and abashed sort of way. " My Emperor," 
said the man, " I have made a bet of five francs with one 
of my companions that you will permit me to light my 
pipe from your cigar," " You have lost, my friend," an- 
swered his Majesty, laughing ; " but here is the money to 
pay your bet and treat your friends besides," at the same 
time placing two golden Napoleons into his hand. lie 
thus managed to preserve both his dignity and his popu- 
larity. 

"When Queen Yictoeia was in Paris, the Emperor was 
particularly attentive to the Prince of Wales, then a boy. 
This made the Queen very uneasy. She was afraid that 
her son might be badly influenced — that he might be in- 
duced to smoke cigars, or do something still more hor- 
rid. It is related that one day, after both families had 
been lunching at the Palace of the Elysee Bourbon, the 
Emperor suddenly disappeared with the Prince, whereat 
the maternal anxiety and distress were most acute. It 
turned out that they had gone by themselves for a two 
hours' drive. 

I am sure that he was never fond of this country. I 
have some reasons for so thinking which I do not con- 
sider myself at liberty to mention. But he was very 
civil to our countrymen in Paris, and sometimes very 
patient with them. 

I know a Spanish gentleman of rank who was once 
sent to the States upon a special mission. He had been 
a friend of the Empress in Madrid, long before she as- 

F2 



130 MEMORIES OF 3IANY 3IEN. 

pired to a crown. On his return from America lie 
stopped in Paris. Immediately after arriving, lie ad- 
dressed a note to her Majesty, requesting the honor of 
an interview. lie received a prompt reply, in which she 
said that she regretted that, in consequence of the ab- 
sence of her husband at Boulogne, she could not see any 
one ; but that he would be back in a fortnight, when she 
would be most happy to receive my friend. According- 
ly, after the delay indicated, an invitation came to him to 
taJhe tea at Saint Cloud. He went, and spent the even- 
ing en petit comite with their two Majesties. The Em- 
peror did not talk much. He was reading the newspa- 
pers, or more likely pi-etending to read them, nearly all 
the time. The Empress was ver}' particular in her ques- 
tions about this country. "Were the women so handsome 
as she was induced to believe by the beauty of some whom 
she had seen in Paris'^ Was there so much luxury in 
the great cities as she had been told ? Was Kew York 
so fine a town as she had heard ? I am justified in be- 
lieving that my friend gave a pretty favorable account of 
every thing. Finally, her Majesty asked him, all things 
considered, which he preferred, Paris or New York ? 
" Paris, of course," he replied. Hereupon the Emperor 
withdrew his head from behind his paper, and, with a 
grim and ironical smile, exclaimed, '■^Quel mauvais 
gout /" (What a bad taste !) 

I had the honor of knowing M. GnzoT at this time. 
After translating into French for publication the Presi- 
dent's Annual Message to Congress, and also some of the 
accompanying documents, I was requested to do into 
English an address which M. Guizot delivered before the 
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences upon the in- 



GUIZOT AND VATTEMARRE. \^\ 

tellectual activity of the United States. This circum- 
stance brought me into personal contact with that emi- 
nent statesman. His character and the tone of liis mind 
are rather Enghsh than French, and so, indeed, is his ap- 
pearance ; but when he speaks, aUhough remarkably so- 
ber in gesticulation for a Frenchman, he could not possi- 
bly be mistaken for any thing else. He is a Protestant, 
as is well known, and, after the downfall of Louis Phi- 
lippe, under whom he was Prime Minister, he was offered 
the professorship of modern history in the University of 
Oxford, which he declined. I spent many hours in his 
library at his modest residence. He was an old man 
then, and must be an octogenarian now. 

I also saw much of that strange character, M. Alex- 
ANDEE Vatteimarke. Originally a physician, and finding 
that he could not suj)port himself in that profession, he 
turned ^^ prestidigitateur^^ or magician, and, under an 
assumed name, being very skillful, became famous all 
over Europe. Having accumulated a moderate fortune, 
he retired to private life, and devoted the remainder of 
his days to promoting literary exchanges between the 
different countries of the world. In this last pursuit he 
was enthusiastic and indefatigable, and deserved great 
credit for his self-sacrificing industry. At his house I 
met the elder Dumas, who was his friend, and several 
other literary celebrities. I exchanged cards wath M. de 
TocQTTEviLLE, the distinguished political writer, but had 
not the good fortune to meet him. 

Ex-Peesident Yan Buken M^as also in Paris at the 
time of the Exposition, and I had the pleasure of being a 
great deal in his company. He was quite as courtly, 
and almost as active, as when he was President of the 



132 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

United States some fifteen years earlier. I have a num- 
ber of letters which he addressed to me in May, 1855, 
written in that slanting manner across the paper which 
is so familiar to those who cori-esponded with him during 
the last years of his life. His favorite son, Martin, on 
account of whose health Mr. Van Bueen came abroad, 
died in Paris, and the remarks of the Abbe Cocqueeel 
at the grave were as eloquent as any to which I e^■er 
listened. All Mr. Van Bueen's sons except one have 
now passed away. John and Abeaham and Maetin are 
dead ; Smith, the youngest, alone survives. 

The engineer officers commissioned by the United 
States Government to examine and report upon the mil- 
itary operations in the Crimea were also in Paris at about 
this time. They were Majoe Del afield, Ma joe Moede- 
CAi, and Captain (since Geneeal) Geoege B. McClel- 
LAN. I had the pleasure of meeting tliem several times. 
I particularly recall one occasion when they were all in 
uniform, with those extraordinary regulation caps to 
which I have referred upon their heads. They were just 
getting into a cab, and their appearance attracted a crowd 
of gamins to the spot. These caps were the only pecul- 
iar thing they had about them, and must have been the 
principal cause of the gathering. They did not receive 
those facilities for visiting the French camp in the 
Crimea which they had the right to expect. Indeed, I 
understood that they were treated with scant courtesy 
by all tlie belligerents except the Russians. 

I was one day walking up the Avenue of tlie Champs 
Elysees when I met Mr. Tiiackeeay, the author, whom I 
had last seen in America. lie joined me, and we had 
proceeded some distance when he recognized a young 



THE ''MARqriS OF famintosh:' 133 

gentleman on the otlier side of the street. The stranger, 
a tall and uncommonly handsome person, immediately 
crossed over to meet, him, and I stepped aside. I over- 
heard Thackeray ask him what had brought him to 
Paris. lie answered that he had come for pleasure. 
"And have you found it';!" drawled Thackeray, with a 
slight sneer in his voice, as if pleasure, as a pursuit, was 
an unworthy object for any man's ambition. When 
they parted, and Thackeray again took my arm, he 
said to me, " Of course you know the yonng man with 
whom I was just speaking ?" I answered that I did not. 
" You don't mean to tell me," he continued, " that you, 
who have been so much in London, don't know him ?" 
I assured him that I had no recollection that I had 
ever before met the gentleman. " Why," he said, " that 
is the Marquis of Farintosh." " And who is the Mar- 
quis OF Farintosh ?" I pursued. " Why, the Marquis 
OF Bath, of course," he replied. This led to a conver- 
sation about several other characters in his books. He 
told me that his own mother was the prototype of Helen 
Pendennis, but that the copy fell very far short of tlie 
original. He also told me who had sat for the portrait 
of Harry Foker, but all the town knows about that. 

I then remarked to him that he must have been inti- 
mately acquainted with many French families of the 
best class ; that his French characters were more accu- 
rately and delicately drawn than those of any other En- 
glish writer whom I had ever read — and to this opinion 
I still adhere. He assured me that, on the contrary, he 
had never in his life been intimate in a single French 
family. This is very surprising, for he has exhibited in 
his books the most profound knowledge of the nature of 



134 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

the French, as well as of tlieir manners, and ho has dis- 
sected the former and depicted the latter with the most 
wonderful skill, and without any false deductions or 
tendency to caricature. 

A few days afterward I called upon him at his lodg- 
ings in company with my old college classmate, Donald 
G. Mitchell, better known to the literary world as 17c 
Marvel. Upon receiving our cai'ds, Mr. TnACKEliAY in- 
vited us to come in, but we found him in one of those 
moods of surly incivility in which I have seen him a 
number of times. He was probably busy writing, al- 
though, if my recollection is correct, we saw no evidence 
of it; and, after remaining a very few minutes, we beat 
a retreat, I regretted very much that Mr. Mitchell, 
who had never before seen him, was so unfortunate as to 
drop upon him when he was in this unamiable state of 
temper. 

The reader will long since have observed with M'hat 
little plan or system I wander from subject to subject, 
like an old woman and some old men. And yet, per- 
haps, if he be one of those who like to let conversation 
flow in its natural bent, and who dislike the use of stilts 
in books as much as on dry land, he will find no great 
fault with my discursiveness. 

To return to the Exposition. The heads of the various 
Commissions organized themselves jnto a body for pur- 
poses of mutual conference and protection, and we used 
to meet every Thursday evening at the residence of Bar- 
on Jaisies de Rothschild, the Austrian Commissioner, and 
who was also Austrian Consul-General. The Baron was 
a portly Hebrew gentleman, with light hair and com- 
plexion, and a tendency to redness about the eyes. He 



A 3I0XEY LORD'S POLITENESS. 135 

was very abrupt and brusque in liis manners, as was nat- 
ural for a financier wlio held the purse-strings of mon- 
archs, and he made himself extremely disliked by some 
of his associates. Upon one occasion he kept us waiting 
for him more than an hour after tlie appointed time, 
without any explanation whatever, and it M-as all that a 
few of us could do to prevent the Commissioners from 
leaving the house in a body. When he did join us finally, 
he merely casually mentioned that he had friends to din- 
ner, but without taking the pains even to couch the state- 
ment in the form of an apology. At these meetings the 
Commissioners received the refreshment of a cup of tea. 
The Baron spoke a number of times with me of several 
persons in New York, but his object was apparently rath- 
er to learn about their financial standing than the social 
consideration in which they were held. 

The old Baeon Salomon de Rothschild died in Paris 
during the summer of 1855. The following is a trans- 
lation of the invitation to the funeral which I received, 
and which can not fail to be curious to my American 
readers : 

Sm, — The Baron and the Baroness Anselme de Rothschild, 
the Baron and the Baroness James de Rothschild, the Baron 
and the Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild and their children, 
the Baron and the Baroness Adolphe de Rothschild, the B.aron 
and the Baroness "Willy de Rothschild and their children, the 
Barons Alphonse, Gustave, Salomon, and Edmond de Roths- 
child, the Misses Louise and Alice de Rothschild, and the Bar- 
ons Nathaniel, Ferdinand, and Salomon de Rothschild, the 
Baron Amschel de Rothschild, Madame Worms, Madame Sich- 
EL, Madame Montefiore, Madame Beypus, the Baron and the 
Baroness Lionel de Rothschild and their children, the Baron 
and the Baroness Anthony de Rothschh^d and their children, 



136 ME3fORIES OF MANY MEN. 

the Baron and the Baroness Mayer de Rothschild and their 
children, the Baron and the Baroness Mayer-Charles de Roths- 
child and their children, Mr. and Madame Adolphe Beyfus, Mr. 
and Madame S. Sichel and Mr. J. Sichel, 

Have the honor to inform you of the irreparable loss they have 
experienced by the decease of the Baron Salomon de Rothschild, 
who died at his hotel. No. 17 Rue Lafitte, the 27th of July, 1855, 
at the age of eighty-two years, their well-beloved father, father-in- 
law, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, and uncle; 

And invite you to attend the funeral on Tuesday, the 3 1st of 
July, at nine o'clock. 

The funeral will take place from the residence of the deceased. 

Before the Exposition came to a close, I was called 
away from Paris by private business. The United States 
made but an indifferent show at this great World's Fair. 
Still a comparatively large number of medals and diplo- 
mas was awarded to our exhibitors. Among ourselves 
matters worked harmoniously, and nothing scandalous 
was ever charged upon our unpaid Commission. If our 
services received no particular acknowledgment at home, 
they w^ere amply recognized upon the spot. Our fellow- 
citizens in France exhibited their appreciation of them 
in every way open to them, and the Emperor awarded 
to some of us the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Be- 
fore the year expired, the permanent position of Secre- 
tary of the United States Legation in France was ten- 
dered to me by Pkesident Pieece ; but the office had lost 
many of its charms for me, and I respectfully declined 
the offer. 



CHAPTEE X. 

TOWARD the close of the year 1855 I again went 
abroad, and took up my temporary residence in 
England. I became very fond of England, as I think 
there is reason that every intelligent American should. 
Very few of our people, however, are accustomed to 
stop there any considerable time, in their hurry on their 
arrival to reach the Continent, and on their return to get 
liome. Paris is the American man's, and especially the 
American woman's, paradise. But, after all, for a home, 
I prefer England to France, and London to Paris. En- 
glish society is a cold and repulsive mystery to us at 
first. Our gregarious habits, like those of the French, 
render it natural for us to make and to desire to make 
chance acquaintances. This yon can not do to any 
great extent in England, although you may do it with 
the English when they are traveling in other lands. You 
may reside in England many years, and hiow nobody. 
But if j-on have a proper introduction to one person, it 
carries with it the acquaintance of all belonging to the 
circle in which he moves. The English, so cold and re- 
served with strangers, are the kindest and most cordial 
people in tlie world with their friends. According to 
my experience, an American is always especially favored 
by them. They hardly look upon him as a foreigner. 
I have frequently heard this form of phrase, " Oh ! there 
were two or three Americans and half a dozen foreign- 



138 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

ers." And friendship in England means a vast deal 
more than it does in some other parts of the world. 
Many of their social usages are the reverse of ours, and 
have a better foundation in common-sense. For instance : 
liere Brown and Jones are walking upon the street; they 
meet Eobinson, who is a friend of Brown, but not ac- 
quainted with Jones; forthwith Brown introduces the 
two strangers to each other, and they affectionately shake 
hands ; after a brief conversation, they part without shak- 
ing hands ; and the probability is that Jones and Eobin- 
son will never meet again, or, if they do, will forget that 
they had ever met before. In England, however, no in- 
troduction ever takes place casually. If made, it is with 
a purpose, and with the assumption of responsibility as 
to its suitableness in all respects. When persons j)revi- 
ously unacquainted are introduced, they do not shake 
hands. But they do on parting, and whenever they 
again meet and separate. Giving the hand is looked 
upon as a pledge of friendship, not as a mere expression 
of civil recognition. Almost every thing is deeper, 
stronger, and heartier in England than with us. All is 
surrounded tliere by a thick rind, hard to penetrate, but 
when you have once got within it, you come upon a rich, 
fruity core. Shams and superficialities are not so abun- 
dant tliere as elsewhere, notwithstanding the satirizing 
of themselves by their native Juvenals. 

I remained in England upon this occasion until some 
time in the month of July, 1857. I had not been there 
very long, when I received a call one day fi*om a mulatto 
sculptor fj-om New Orleans, Avho had exhibited some 
very creditable and promising works at the recent Paris 
Exposition. By some chance the Duchess of Suther- 



THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND AND MBS. STOWE. 139 

LAND had been attracted to his studio in Paris before the 
oj)ening of the Exposition, and it was indirectly through 
her agency that my attention had been originally called 
to him. I am not quite certain of his name, but think 
that it was Wakbekg. The poor, foolish fellow, having 
exhausted his means, had come over to London to find 
liis Duchess, hoping that she would relieve his wants 
and give him the advantage of her protection. Upon 
going to Sutherland House, he was informed that the 
Duchess was then in Scotland, and would not return to 
town for several weeks. He also learned that Mrs. IIae- 
EiET Beecher Stowe was with her Grace. In his disap- 
pointment lie looked me up, having, I believe, not a sin- 
gle other acquaintance in the great city. To make mat- 
ters worse for him, he had brought with him a charming 
little quadroon wife, of whose existence I had hitherto 
known nothing. They were residing in a wretchedly 
squalid place on the Surrey side, and were in imminent 
danger of starvation. I did the little that I could to re- 
lieve their immediate wants, and gave him an order for 
a bust. I had not the honor of Mrs. Stowe's acquaint- 
ance, nor have I ever since met the lady. But I took 
the liberty of immediately writing her a full account of 
my protege, knowing that it would be laid under the 
Duchess's eye. At that time I had some doubts about 
Mrs. Stowe's sincerity in the cause of the negroes. I 
was not sure that she was any thing more than a writer 
of sensational fiction. An answer soon came, to the ef- 
fect that the Duchess and herself would be in London 
in a few days, when the matter should have attention. 
When these ladies did return, they associated with them- 
selves in their benevolent purpose Lady Bykon, and, for 



14:0 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEK 

aught I know to the contrary, some others. Shortly 
thereafter they took a nice snite of apartments for War- 
berg, as I shall call him, and his wife, in the artists' qnar- 
-ter, on one of the streets leading into Bedford Square, 
paid the rent in advance, and furnished them with every 
comfort. After a further interval of time, Warberg 
informed me that the same ladies had arranged to 
send him to Italy, that he might have the opportunity 
of pursuing his studies in the studio of a famous 
sculptor. Never since that time have I doubted Mrs. 
Stowe's sincerity in the great work of African eman- 
cipation. 

It was not my fortune to personally meet Lady Byron ; 
but in the eyes of many people her eccentricities and 
restlessness were evidences of a deranged mind. It was 
said that she let her house (on Park Lane, I believe), fur- 
nished, for a year or longer, and almost immediately tried 
to rescind the bargain and re-enter into possession. Fail- 
ing in this, she hired another furnished house, of which 
she became tired in the course of a month or so. She 
managed to get rid of this one, and then took another. 
And so on to the end of the chapter. Some people M'ho 
knew her, did not hesitate to call her downright mad. 
Under these circumstances, it is not unreasonable to be- 
lieve that the horrible revelations which she made to 
Mrs. Stowe, in relation to the cause of the separation be- 
tween herself and her poet-husband, were but the hallu- 
cinations of a diseased brain. 

It was at about this time that I received an invitation 
to breakfast with Mr. Macaulay, who was not yet ele- 
vated to the Peerage, at his chambers in the Albany. I 
found him a bluff, downright sort of person, not at all 



MACAULAY AT HOME. l^\ 

like my preconceived ideal of the author of the essay 
on Milton. I am not quite sure whether he was or was 
not at that time in the Ministry. Our breakfast was 
tete-ci-tete, and my host did all the talking. He had no 
" brilliant flashes of silence," as Sydney Smith remarked 
of him upon another occasion. We were together about 
an hour and a lialf, and most of the conversation turned 
upon the institutions of this countiy, and their probable 
future fate. Mr. Macaulay shocked me by prophesy- 
ing with the utmost confidence that slavery was certain 
to break up our Government w^ithin ten years from that 
time, and that in the no very distant future two divided 
confederacies would, by their own weight, and from the 
operation of other causes, drop into half a dozen broken 
states, with military despotisms ruling over them. This 
was an extraordinary prediction to an American car in 
the year 1S5C. At that time we none of us thought of 
the possibility of an impending crisis. Slavery brought 
us to a civil war, within even less than the limit of 
Macaulay's prophecy. He M'as mistaken in foreseeing 
a dissolution of the Union, as immediately involved in 
the struggle which that institution provoked. And it is 
to be hoped that he was equally in error in his vaticina- 
tions in respect to our ultimate fate. I tried to per- 
suade him to reduce what he had said to writing, and 
permit it to be read before the New York Historical So- 
ciety ; but he declined, excusing himself on account of 
his overwhelming engagements. 

He spoke to me of the Chartist demonstration in 1848, 
about w^hicli I have already written, and told me that 
the number of the disaffected collected on Kennington 
Common, which had been popularly supposed at the time 



142 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

not to fall short of thirty or forty thousand, did not, in 
fact, exceed seven thousand. He said that the Govern- 
ment had resorted to the photograph in order to accu- 
rately estimate the number. That knowing the area of 
the Common, and computing the number of people who 
could stand on it side by side, and possessing a picture 
showing to what extent the space was covered with human 
beings, and in what closeness of proximity they stood, 
they were thus enabled to determine how many they were. 
I used to see a good deal of Mr, Thackeray. He was 
living at that time in his new house in Brompton, which 
he told me he had purchased, together with the furni- 
ture contained in it, from the proceeds of his lectures 
in America upon the Four Georges. When I found 
him at home he w^as sometimes engaged in dictating 
to his daughter, and my calls upon these occasions 
were necessarily brief. His health was not vei*y good, 
and he often dictated lying upon the bed, while Miss 
Thackeray sat upon a chair at its side, with a table 
before her upon which she wrote. I dined with him 
one day at the Eeform Club. He was a great gourmet, 
although not a great eater, and that day he was suffer- 
ing from a severe headache. After the soup and the 
fish had both been removed, he told me that the next 
dish would be one of his own invention. It proved to 
be a boiled pheasant, with a soubise sauce, and it was 
really delicious. Between us we could not eat more than 
lialf of the bird, and he sent what remained with his 
compliments to a friend who was dining on the other 
side of the room. Such a proceeding would look odd 
in one of our New York Clubs, but I presume that it 
could not be unusual there. 



THACKERAY AND DICKENS. 143 

After dinner we withdrew, or rather ascended, to tlie 
smoking-room, where Mr. Thackeray introduced me to 
several members of Parliament, and, excusing liimself on 
account of his headache, retired, leaving me to be enter- 
tained by them, I have always found it a severe ordeal 
to be left to the tender mercies of a member of Parlia- 
ment. They are so well informed about this country, so 
familiar with the Federalist and other writings of the 
Fathers, and so thoroughly versed in our more recent 
history, that it is not very easy to hold up one's own end 
of the rope in a conversation with them turning upon 
these subjects. And these are the subjects upon which 
they naturally desire to hear an American talk. 

I was one day walking with Mr. Thackeeay, when 
something was said by me about Mr. Dickens. There- 
upon Thackeeay, in the most naive manner in the world, 
remarked to me that it was very strange, but neverthe- 
less a fact, that Dickens's publishers sold five copies of 
any one of his books for one copy which Ms booksellers 
sold of any of his. It did not appear to me so very sin- 
gular, but I did not say so. The one appealed to only 
the cultivated class, the other to all classes. The one 
was a great humorist and moral anatomist, and the other 
a great humanitarian. I then referred to the rumor, at 
that time in general circulation, that Dickens was in 
pecuniary embarrassments by reason of his extravagant 
living, and was contemplating a flight from England to 
avoid his creditors. Tiiackekay with great warmth de- 
nied this story as a gross calumny. He said that he was 
acquainted with Dickens's affairs, and that, so far from 
exceeding his means, he had always lived within them. 
He complained very much of the annoyances of notori- 



144: MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

ety. He said that he could not walk a foot in London 
without being recognized, and that he found this a great 
penalty for literary fame. 

I once saw the famous dramatic author, Tom Taylor, 
at the theatre, w^hile I was in England at this time. He 
wore his hair long, and combed behind his ears, and w^as 
much changed in apjiearance since I saw him at Ti'inity 
College, Cambridge, in the year 1843. He was then 
studying for holy orders, and was private tutor to one of 
my particular friends. I remember that he gave me a 
delightful breakfast there, and that, notwithstanding the 
gravity of his contemplated profession, he was one of 
the most amusing and jocular personages that I fell in 
with. SuEKiDAN Knowles exchanged play -writing for 
the pulpit, and Tom Taylok discarded clerical robes for 
the pen of the dramatist. 

One of the most delightful houses which I visited in 
London was that of Mr. S. C. Hall and his accomplished 
wife, who both held high positions in the world of let- 
ters as well as socially. Mrs. Hall had the faculty of 
bringing together in her di-awing-rooms people the most 
distinguished in all the walks of life. I met there one 
evening Professor Owen, Jenny Lind, Lover, Haw^- 
THORNE, Miss Poole, and I don't know whom besides. 
Professor Owen looked like one of his own pre-Adamite 
fossils reanimated. I had not seen Jenny Lind since we 
parted in America, after her extraordinary musical tour 
through this country. She looked thin and wan, very 
unlike the vigorous Swedish peasant-like w^oman whom 
I had so well known. As I entered the room, she 
crossed it to meet me, and we seated ourselves upon a 
sofa, and had a long chat about old times upon this side 



0MNIU3I OATHERmr. I45 

of the Atlantic. Lover sat down to the piano and war- 
hied, as Tom Mooee is said to have done, rather than sang, 
" The Low-backed Car," and others of his own composi- 
tions. I had heard him many years before in the old 
Burton theatre on Chambers Street, in New York, but the 
drawing-room, rather than the stage, was evidently the 
proper place for him. Hawthorne's superb head was 
by all odds the finest in the room. He looked genial, 
and, inirahile dictu! appeared at his ease. To me, who 
had not seen him since he lived at Lenox, in Massa- 
chusetts, this transformation appeared marvelous. I sat 
down by his side, and he talked brilliantly for half an 
lidur, without exhibiting any of the shyness which for 
years had made him a perfect recluse. It was said that 
he was still unapproachable in his Consulate at Liver- 
pool, but he appeared completely humanized at Mrs. 
Hall's. Miss Poole sang still more charmingly than 
she used to do in New York, I fear to say how many 
years ago, when she was tlie delight of Metropolitan au- 
diences. 

I was a very frequent attendant at the meetings of the 
two Houses of Parhament, and had many opportunities 
of listening to some of the most eminent statesmen and 
orators of Great Britain. Among them there were ^•ery 
few who were eloquent, as eloquence is understood in 
this country. There were many good, sensible, down- 
right talkers — men w^ith no nonsense about them. In- 
deed, there are very few persons to whom eloquence 
would be permitted in the British forum. Bosh and 
humbug have become the national aversion, and if a 
man has any thing to say, they wish him to say it in the 
simplest manner ; and, if he has nothing to say, they do 

G 



146 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

not want to hear him at all. The truth is that both the 
Commons and the Lords meet for business, and not for 
buncombe. I heard a great many more good speakers 
in the Lords than in the Commons. This seems nat- 
ural enough when we remember that nearly all the 
Lords have had a preliminary training, and sometimes 
a long one, in the Commons before being called to the 
Upper House. 

The only man in either House to whom I listened, 
who possessed the unmistakable gift of eloquence, as 
we in America understand it, was the late Eakl of 
Derby. He was fluent, forcible, and imaginative; and 
his invective and sarcasm were very powerful. He had 
a strong tendency toward liberalism in his youth, and 
his father sent him to this country to cure him of it— a 
remedy which in his case proved effectual, for he hard- 
ened in his politics as he advanced in life. I recollect 
one occasion when the Bisuop of Oxford, afterward 
Bishop of Winchester — the same "svho was killed last 
August by a fall from his horse — one of the most fluent 
and forcible speakers in the Whig ranks, had been ad- 
dressing the House at considerable length upon some 
question which I do not at present recall. He was fol- 
lowed by the little Duke of Argyll, one of the Whig 
leaders, who has an amazing gift of language, in a bit- 
ter harangue of half an hour's length, every word of 
which was directed at Lord Derby personally. When 
the Duke sat down, the Earl arose, and, advancing to the 
woolsack, made a powerful speech in reply to that of 
the Bishop, without noticing the Duke, as if he was an 
adversary unworthy of his attention. 

Among the other speakers in the House of Lords who 



BRITISH ELOQUENCE. I47 

pleased me most were the dyspeptic and bitter Loed 
Gkey and the Makquis of Clanricaede among tlie 
Whigs, and the bhiff Eael of Hardwicke among the 
Tories. Loed Claneicaede, who married the daughter 
of Peime Ministee Canning, w^as said to be the most ill- 
favored man in the United Kingdom. lie was at one 
time Embassador to Unssia, and at another Postmaster- 
General. Notwithstanding his lack of good looks, he 
was the most noted man in Great Britain for his gallant- 
ries, always excepting the Eael of Caedigan. I heard 
the young Eael of Caenaevon, of whom great things 
were expected, make his maiden speech, and although at 
its close Lord Deeby complimented him, as in duty 
bound (he is a Tory), it appeared to me both in manner 
and in matter an effort that would have been unworthy 
of an American school-boy of fifteen. In the Commons 
I heard very little agreeable speaking, hardly any from 
the leaders. Mr. Diseaeli has much of the English 
stammer and stutter, and his tones are deep and monot- 
onous. Eael Russell, who, as Loed John, was then in 
the Commons, is tedious to a degree that is almost unen- 
durable. Mr, Gladstone is impressive, but his sentences 
are so involved that it is painful to follow him. Loed 
Palmeeston was fearful with his hesitations and his 
mumblings, and his ohs and his ahs. There was noth- 
ing remarkable in his speeches except his skill as a 
tactician. I never knew him to meet an argument 
squarely, and endeavor to answer it. His usual ma- 
noeuvre was to attempt to turn his enemy's flank, raise a 
side issue, and, if possible, get up a laugh at his expense. 
There was something about him, h&wever, which always 
carried the House with him. He was prodigiously mag- 



143 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

iietic. lie always appeared to me the incarnation of 
Jolm-Bull-ism ; and it was from this fact, I believe, that 
he acquired much of his popularity. He was the average 
Englishman, as Abraham Lincoln w^as the average Amer- 
ican, He was that sort of a man that, if he happened 
to be shaving in his bedroom in his shirt-sleeves, and 
heard a row in the street below, would be very likely 
to drop his razor, and with lathered face rush down stairs 
to take a part in the intUe. He generally sat on the 
front ministerial bench, with his colleagues on either side 
of him, and his hat drawn down over his eyes. Occasion- 
ally he would jump up suddenly, and go off into the wine- 
room for a glass of sherry, or into tlie lobby for a chat ; 
but while he sat in the House, he never moved or spoke 
until he arose to close the debate. There was that in 
his character and in his appearance which made you rec- 
ognize him as an old hoy as long as he lived. At this 
time he was in deep mourning for Loed Cowper, Lady 
Palmerston's son by a former marriage. 

English travelers have said a great deal about the in- 
decorum of our Houses of Congress. At the time, ante 
helium, when arguments were sometimes enforced by 
revolvers, and "when violent epithets were occasionally 
launched in debate, there was a good deal of truth in 
their strictures. Mais nous avo7is change, tout cela. 
In the .British Houses of Parliament the disorder and 
indecorum which prevail affect foreigners very disagree- 
ably. The wearing of hats, the free and easy attitudes, 
sitting and lounging, indulged in by the members, and 
the unpleasant noises which sometimes prevail, the En- 
glish are so accustomed to as to be unconscious of their 
singularity. I venture to say that to-day, unless there 



GIVING 3IR. BULL ''HIS PAPERS:' ^49 

has been a great chauge in that regard on the other 
side of the water, the American Senate and House of 
Representatives are far more dignified and orderly bod- 
ies than tlie Britisli Houses of Lords and Commons. 

Of all the speakers to whom I remember to have list- 
ened in the House of Commons, Mr. Whiteside, the Tory 
barrister, pleased me most. He is an Irishman, and for 
an Irishman to secure an attentive audience in that fo- 
rum, he must speak uncommonly well. Mr. Whiteside 
liad a short time before written a book on Italy, which 
has not its equal in the English language — not even ex- 
cepting Mr. Hillakd's. I believe that he is now Lord 
Chief Justice of Ireland. 

During a part of the time that I resided in England, 
the relations between that country and our own were 
very much disturbed by complications and embarrass- 
ments growing out of the Central American and enlist- 
ment difficulties, as they were called. The Government 
at Washington had proceeded to the extremity of dis- 
missing Mr. Ceampton, the British Envoy, together with 
the Consuls at New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. 
Tliis action produced a very deep feeling in England. 
The Thnes thundered from day to day in ominous tones. 
Every body was talking about the possibility of war 
with America, not flippantly, I must own, but with deep 
feeling and sincere regret. Mr. ArPLETON, of Maine, 
our Secretary of Legation in London, and afterward 
Minister to Russia, applied to The Times unsuccessfully 
for a hearing in its columns. What was refused to him 
was conceded to me. This was probably because he 
was an official and I only a private citizen. I wrote two 
long letters advocating the American side, which were 



150 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

printed, and upon each occasion The Times devoted its 
leader of the succeeding day to an answer. The imme- 
diate question just then was, should Mr. Dallas be dis- 
missed from London in retaliation for Mr. Crampton's 
dismissal from Washington ? Almost every body thought 
that he would be. 

At this juncture I met one morning, in a Bayswater om- 
nibus going to the city, the venerable General Caivipbell, 
our Consul in London at that time. There were one or 
two other persons in the 'bus who were acquainted with 
the General, and conversation naturally turned upon the 
subject of the impending difhculties between the two 
countries. Finally one of the other gentlemen court- 
eously asked the General how he thought a war would 
result, if it should unfortunately occur. The days of 
spread-eagleism were not yet over, and the General, who 
was an old war-horse, immediately answered, with more 
force than politeness, " Such a war, sir, which God for- 
bid, would never cease until tlie American flag was 
waving over the Tower, at one end of London, and Buck- 
ingham Palace at the other!" The subject of conversa- 
tion was immediately changed. 

At last The Globe, the evening ministerial journal, an- 
nounced that, at a Cabinet Council, it had been decided 
to tender his passports to Mr. Dallas. Every body con- 
sidered that announcement as ofticial. As soon as I read 
it, I called upon my friend, Admiral Walcot, member 
for Christchurch, for an order to the House of Commons 
for that evening. There was already a great rush for 
seats, and the Admiral requested me to meet him at the 
House upon the opening of the session, when he would 
do the best in his power for me. I went early, but every 



THE COMMONS IN A TWITTER. 151 

seat in tlie gallery was already disposed of. The Admi- 
ral succeeded, however, in seating me in the compart- 
ment reserved for the Peers ; but I was in danger of be- 
ing compelled to vacate the position at any moment, if 
required by one who was legitimately entitled to it. Tor 
several hours, during the time when committee business 
is usually disposed of, there was a thin House. At length 
the members began to drop in by the dozen at a time, 
from their clubs and tlieir dinners. Mr. McGkegok, the 
member from Glasgow, whom I knew, and who after- 
ward came to so sad a fate, had been diniug altogether 
too freely. He was in a great state of excitement, and 
kept rushing from his seat to me to inform me of the 
rumors which were floating through the House, and 
which other members brought to his ear. Then ensued 
a very uninteresting debate upon some unimportant ques- 
tion, which I thought would never come to an end. At 
leno-th it closed, and there was a division of the House, 
and all who were not members were compelled to leave 
for the nonce. It appeared to me a very long time 
before we were permitted to return. Soon after I had 
resumed my seat, however, Mr. Diseaeli arose, amid pro- 
found silence, and begged to ask what decision, if any, 
her Majesty's Government had arrived at in respect to 
the retention or dismissal of the United States Minister. 
When he resumed his seat. Lord Palmerston got up, 
and in a low voice, and with a manner wliich seemed to 
me to indicate infinite disgust, said that, after due con- 
sideration, it had been decided to take no present action 
in the matter ! Mr. Disraeli and his Tory adherents 
looked thunderstruck ; they evidently had made up their 
minds that Mr. Dallas would be dismissed, and had 



152 3IEM0RIES OF 3i:ANY MEX. 

prepared to avail themselves of what they thought would 
prove a political blunder. I rushed out of the House, 
took the first cab, and ordered the driver to Mr. Dallas's 
residence, on Portland Place. I wanted to be the first 
to convey the important news to him. But I failed 
in this : a more expeditious countryman had got there 
before me. 

I afterward heard, upon pretty good authority, that it 
had been decided, at a Cabinet meeting, to send Mr. 
Dallas home, the only vote in the negative being that 
of Mr. Yernon Smith. That, in the mean time, Madamp: 
Van de Weyee, the wife of the Belgian Minister, and 
the daughter of Mr. Bates, and one of the Queen's 
favorite friends, had been to her Majesty upon the sub- 
ject. That thereupon the Queen had sent for Lokd 
Pal]vierston, and ordered a reversal of the decision. 
That the Government did not care to go to the country 
upon the question, and had therefore withheld their res- 
ignations. Whether this is true or not, we Americans 
hardly know what a good friend the Queen has always 
been to us. In more instances than one the weight of 
her prerogative has been thrown in our favor. Mr. 
Crampton deserved his dismissal for his action in the 
enlistment business ; but I hope that the occasion may 
never again arise which will require so harsh a proceed- 
ing oil the part of the American Government toward a 
diplomatic representative of Great Britain. 



PART II. 



AT HOME. 



G2 



PART II. 

CHAPTEK L 

THE first man, famous or infamous, in the annals of 
our country whom I recollect seeing is Aakon Buee. 
I was a mere child, and he was already a withered old 
man, who used to w-alk up and down Broadway, with 
his eyes bent upon the ground, never raising them for 
recognition. He was at that time residing upon Staten 
Island, where he afterward died, equally barren in 
friends and fortune. 

The late Judge Aaeon Vandeepoel, of New York, 
described to me a party, or ratlier an orgy, that Buee 
had at his house, at Eichmond Hill, on the night before 
his duel with Alexandee Hamilton. Buee was up near- 
ly or quite all night, and was among the gayest of the 
gay. This, " parva componere magnis," recalls the inci- 
dent of the Duke of Wellington's presence at the Duch- 
ess OF Beunswick's ball in Brussels the night before the 
Battle of Waterloo. The venerable James A. Hamilton 
told me that his father lingered until some time in the 
afternoon of the day after that on which he was shot, 
and that he was the last person to whom the great 
Federalist spoke. 

Another almost daily walker in the same street in 
those days was the noble-looking, half-civilized chief of 
the Seneca Indians, Red Jacket. He carried his head 



156 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

aloftj except when occasionally compelled to let it droop 
from an over-dose of the white man's fire-water. lie 
derived his name from an elegantly embroidered jacket 
which was presented to him by a British officer during 
the Revolution, and he wore upon his breast a silver 
medal, the gift of General Washington. 

The next of our distinguished public men of whom I 
have any remembrance is General Jackson, then Pres- 
ident of the United States, upon the occasion of his visit 
to New York in the year 1833. I was but a small boy at 
the time, and I remember standing upon the steps of the 
American Museum, where the Herald building is now, 
to see the procession on its passage up Broadway. The 
President was on horseback, and w^ore upon his head a 
white hat almost covered by an enormous "weeper," 
with pendant bands, such as mutes wear at funerals in 
England. This was for Mrs. Jackson, then recently de- 
ceased. I had never before seen one of these strange em- 
blems of mourning, which were peculiar to the South 
and Southwest of the country. As he was passing from 
Castle Garden to the Battery, the bridge which then con- 
nected them broke down, and, although he reached terra 
firma in safety, several of those w^ho followed him were 
precipitated into the water. Many years afterward I saw 
President Pierce, as he rode at the head of a procession 
to take part in the inaugural ceremonies of the Kew York 
World's Fair. There was a pouring rain, and he protect- 
ed the Presidential head with an umbrella. I do not 
know which impressed me as most odd. General Jack- 
son's "weeper" or General Pierce's umbrella. 

I saw Mr. Van Buren in the summer of the year 1840 
at the Executive Mansion. To me, at that time a stu- 



PRESIDESTS, PAST AND FUTURE. I57 

dent at Yale College, a President of the United States 
was an object of awe — an awe which I regret to say, 
on my own account, soon passed away with advancing 
years. I can see him in my mind's eye now, as I then 
saw him in the flesh, dressed in faultless black, with natty 
boots, sitting before a sea-coal fire, which he vigorously 
stirred during the pauses in the conversation. 

On my return from that, my first, visit to Washington, 
I stopped in Baltimore. The Democratic National Con- 
vention was in session, and in vain I went from hotel to 
hotel in quest of lodgings. I finally brought up in a 
second-class hostelry called the " Fountain Inn," which 
may or may not still exist, and there I was so fortunate 
as to find a vacant billiard-table, upon which I was per- 
mitted to pass the night, but not to sleep. I was terribly 
" demoralized " the next day, and started for New York 
by the first train. I was strangely impressed by the 
roughness and coarseness of a majority of the delegates 
and others who attended that Convention. 

It was years after tliis before chance threw me into 
contact with any of the j^ersons who have played leading 
parts in our national history. Early in the month of Au- 
gust, of the year 1852, provided with a letter of intro- 
duction from Charles O'Conor, I sought at Concord, 
New Hampshire, where he resided, Franklin Pierce, 
then recently nominated by the Democratic National 
Convention as their candidate for the Presidency at the 
ensuing election in November. Not finding General 
Pierce at home, I followed him to Pye Beach, a water- 
ing-place upon the coast, where he was passing a few 
days with his only child, a boy of thirteen, who was deli- 
cate, and required the tonic of sea-bathing. After se- 



158 ME2I0RIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

curing a room at the bote], I inquired for the General, 
and was informed that he was not then within. Present- 
ly there came into the hotel office, where I was standing, 
a slender, smooth-faced man, apparently of middle age, 
very carelessly dressed, with rumpled linen and a shock- 
ingly bad white hat, who was pointed out to me as the 
person of whom I was in quest. I delivered to him my 
letter, and he received me with great cordiality, imme- 
diately inviting me to accompany him to his own room. 
I had a very long and delightful conversation with him. 
He was entirely unaffected, and « remarkably picturesque 
talker. He told me how surprised he was at his own 
nomination, and the circumstances under which he had 
received the news of it. He was stopping, with Mrs. 
PiEECE, at the Tremont House, in Boston, at the time of 
the opening of the session of the Convention. There 
was balloting after balloting, and it was not until just be- 
fore the thirty-fifth that his name was at all mentioned, 
it then being introduced by the delegation from Virginia. 
It was not at first received in a manner to indicate the 
probability of its adoption. But the moment she heard 
that it had been brought forward, Mrs. Pierce, who was 
an invalid, became very nervous and alarmed lest he 
should be finally selected. General Pierce did not ex- 
plain to me why she was apprehensive, but, in common 
with every body else, I understood it. She had persuaded 
him some years before to resign his seat in the United 
States Senate, where he was conspicuous for one unhappy 
personal habit. And she feared that if elected President 
he might again relapse into the same habit, a possibility 
the thought of which was unendurable to her sensitive 
mind. He went on to say tllat one afternoon, while the 



FIERCE AND JIAWTHORXE. 159 

action of tlie Convention was still undecided, he ordered 
a carriage for a drive to Mount Auburn, As he was de- 
scending the steps of the hotel to enter the carriage, into 
which Mrs. Piekce had preceded him, he purchased an 
extra edition of a newspaper which was just issued. 
Casting his eye over the head-lines, he saw that no choice 
of a candidate had yet been made, and a telegram pre- 
dicted that all the chances were in favor of one of his 
competitors. Entering the carriage, lie placed the news- 
paper in his wife's hand, and, pointing to this paragraph, 
told her to read it, and it would set her mind at ease. He 
then directed the coachman to drive on. About an hour 
after they had left the hotel, and while they were driv- 
ing within the inclosure of the Cemetery, they were 
overtaken by a mounted messenger, who brought the 
news that the General had been nominated on the forty- 
ninth ballot. Mrs. PiEECE fainted upon the receipt of 
the intelligence, as if a disaster, instead of a triumph, 
had come to her husband. 

He asked me if I knew Nathaniel Hawthorne, the 
author, his class-mate at college, and life-long friend. 
Upon my answering in the negative, he gave me a whim- 
sical account of the eccentricities of that great genius. 
He said that it was several years since they had met, 
when only two days before Hawthorne called upon him 
at the hotel where we then were. The General happened 
to be in his room at the time. Hawthorne, upon enter- 
ing, wrung his hand, and then, without a word of saluta- 
tion, abruptly threw himself upon a lounge at the other 
side of the room. Here he lay for several minutes, with- 
out speaking, and tangling himself into all sorts of con- 
tortions. At last, with an expression of sympathy and 



IQQ MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

woe upon his countenance, he gazed npon the General's 
face, and exclaimed, " Frank, I pity you ! Indeed, I do, 
from the bottom of my heart !" In the moment of tri- 
umpli, tlie object of his sympathy, probably, did not ap- 
preciate the regrets of either his wife or his friend. After 
more of this light talk, Mr. Pieece finally entered upon 
the domain of politics. He was sure that he would be 
elected, and he gave me unequivocally to understand 
that to Mr. Chaeles O'Conoe he intended to offer the 
portfolio of Attorney-General in his Cabinet. 

We had been together some two hours when I got up 
to take my leave. lie asked me how long I intended to 
remain at the Beach, and I replied that it was my pur- 
pose to go by the early morning train to Boston. He 
told me that I must abandon that idea, that Caleb Gush- 
ing was coming in his yacht from Newburyport the next 
day, that they were to have a chowder party, and that he 
would be pleased to have my company. I had really no 
occasion for Iiaste, so I thanked him, and, without de- 
murrer, accepted the invitation. 

I met him at breakfast the next morning, and soon 
after breakfast accompanied him to the beach for his 
son's bath. I never saw more tender watchfulness ex- 
hibited by a parent. He dressed and undressed the child 
himself, and while the boy was in the water his attention 
was so engrossed by him that it was impossible to pursue 
any conversation. Alas ! in less than a month from that 
time the poor lad was dashed to pieces upon the rocks by 
a railway accident, leaving his father's heart crushed and 
desolate. 

It was not until eleven o'clock on that morning that 
Mr. Cdshing's " yacht," as he called it, or " fishing-sloop," 



POLITICAL CHOWDEE. \Q\ 

as it miglit with more nautical propriety be designated, 
cast anchor off the beach. That gentleman came ashore, 
and after remaining a few minutes, during which I had 
the pleasure of being introduced to him, he re-embarked, 
accompanied by the future President and myself. No 
time was lost in getting under way, and we all began to 
catch fish for the chowder which was the pretext for 
our expedition. The mackerel were running in innu- 
merable shoals, and we soon had a supply far in excess 
of our expected wants. An expert in a red-flannel shirt 
then connnenced, with fish, salt pork, potatoes, and bis- 
cuits, the preparation of the savory dish, which was soon 
steaming under our watering mouths. I had never tasted 
chowder before, and have never tasted it since — at least, 
not the genuine, simon-pure article, served up to appease 
appetites sharpened by the sea-air. The meal disposed 
of, there was much private talk, doubtless upon matters 
of politics, between the General and our host, in which 
I was not invited to participate. We remained out all 
the afternoon, and the shades of evening were approach- 
ing when we again stood off Eye Beach. The wind had 
been freshening, and by this time there was such a surf 
rolling that the "yacht" could not approach very near 
the shore. She ran in as close as she could, and then a 
small boat was lowered to convey Mr. Pieece and myself 
to the beach, Mr. Gushing intending to sail home ■with- 
out landing. "We got on well enough until we were 
near the shore, when a huge wave rolled in and upset 
our boat. The water was up to our necks, but we 
struggled along until we reached dry land. As we were 
shaking ourselves like water-dogs, I begged the General 
to remember, if he should ever become President, that 



IQ2 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

there had been a time when he and I were " alone in the 
same boat." 

I may as well go directly on and relate what after- 
ward happened between this peculiar man and myself, 
lie was always so amiable, so friendly in his manner, so 
affectionate even in his demonstrations^ that I never 
could continue angry with him forty-eight consecutive 
hours, although the provocations which he gave me were 
frequent enough and gross enough to make me break 
w4th him forever. I presume that my own experience 
was similar to that of thousands of others. He was so 
absurdly false to his promises, that, where it did not cut 
too hard, it was positively ludicrous. And yet I never 
in my own mind accused him of insincerity. He M'as a 
weak, imaginative, almost brilliant, undetermined man, 
who said in the morning that he would do something, 
and when he said it meant it, but who changed his mind 
in the afternoon if the smallest obstacle interfei'ed with 
his purpose. He was no more to be relied upon than 
Horace Skimpole or Micawber. He had no fixed will of 
his own, and all through his administration he was bat- 
tledored and shuttlecocked about by Jefferson Davis 
and William L. Maecy, the master minds of his very 
able Cabinet. Most of the state-papers which appeared 
under his signature were attributed to the pen of Mr. 
CusiiiNG, who became his Attorney-General instead of 
Mr. O'CoNOK. He exhibited the same vacillation to all. 
Besides the instance just cited, he offered to General 
Dix, whom he had at one time intended to make Secre- 
tary of State, the mission to France, and then appointed 
Mr. Mason. As I believe, this arose not from duplicity, 
but from unsteadiness. But whatever theoiy in the 



ONE THING TO ALL MEN. 



163 



premises be the correct one, lie succeeded in alienating 
from himself the personal support of many of the veiy 
best members of his party. 

I had the audacity at that time to aspire to the office 
of United States Charge d'' Affaires at the Court of Sar- 
dinia. From personal observation, I had satisfied myself 
that there was a great future in store for that little coun- 
try. Besides, there was the opportunity to negotiate a 
treaty of commerce, which might largely extend our 
Mediterranean trade. So, armed with the very best 
vouchers and recommendations, I began my experience 
as an office-seeker by going to Washington on the second 
day of March, in the year 1853, two days before the in- 
auguration of President Pierce. 

On the morning of the third, I called upon him in 
that drawing-room which forms the south-east corner of 
Willard's Hotel, and which has been the reception-room 
of so many incoming and outgoing Presidents. When I 
entered, there were already probably twenty persons as- 
sembled there, about a dozen of whom were standing in 
a row, and with them the General was then engaged. 
The moment he saw me he advanced with both hands 
outstretched, after the manner of the French, and, telling 
me how delighted he was to see me, drew me away from 
the crowd to one of the windows. He proceeded to say 
that he most especially desired to see me at the Execu- 
tive Mansion the next day, immediately after the inaugu- 
ration — that I must on no account fail to come, and un- 
der no circumstances be later than four o'clock. He 
made no explanation of the reason which impelled him 
to urge so early an interview, but left me with a very 
decided impression that I had the good fortune to enjoy 
his highest favor. 



1^4: 3IE2I0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

I repeated his request to an older and more experi- 
enced friend, who advised me, notwithstanding it, not to 
be so precipitate in making my first call upon the new 
President. He said that he could not fail to be very 
fatigued after the inaugural ceremonies ; and that it cer- 
tainly would be in bad taste, as well as impolitic, to in- 
trude upon him at such a moment. I thought the advice 
good, and followed it. I allowed two days to pass be- 
fore I presented myself at the White House. When, at 
last, I did so, I was without delay ushered into the Pres- 
idential presence. I reminded Mr. Piekce of his invita- 
tion to me to call sooner, and explained to him the rea- 
sons of delicacy which had ]3revented me from doing so. 
He was " delighted," " charmed " to see me, and invited 
me to a seat. He sat down by me, and chatted with me 
in the most agreeable manner about almost every thing 
in the world ; but not one word did he say personal to 
myself. I was all the time expecting it, but it never 
came. Finally, when it would ha^'e been indecent to 
remain any longer, I left. He accompanied me to the 
outer door, and begged me to " call again to-morrow." 

I did not go again the next day, but allowed two or 
three days to intervene before I once more sought an in- 
terview with the "head of the nation." Upon this oc- 
casion I was received as before, " with effusion." By 
this time I had made up my mind that, if the mountain 
would not come to Mohammed, Mohammed would go to 
the mountain. So, having brought with me all my docu- 
ments, I determined to force the fighting, and began at 
once to explain, without circumlocution, what I wanted. 
I asked the President to read my papers ; but this he de- 
clined to do, saying that my original letter to him from 



OFFICE- SEEKING AND OFFICE-SEEKERS. Ig5 

Charles O'Conok answered every purpose, and that it 
would afford him the ^'ery highest satisfaction to comply 
with my wishes. I would please file my papers in the 
Secretary of State's office, and give myself no further 
concern npon the subject. There might be a little de- 
lay in announcing the diplomatic appointments, as some 
of the more important ones at home first required atten- 
tion ; but mine was his personal affair, and, under all cir- 
cumstances, should be made. I think, then, that I was 
justified in considering myself booked for Turin for 
the next four years. The President asked me to dine 
with him that day, which I did. 

The next day I called npon Governor Marcy, the 
Secretary of State, handed him my papers, and explained 
to him what the President had said. He was always 
friendly to me, and he expressed, and I have no doubt sin- 
cerely, his gratification, and his perfect acquiescence in 
the President's proposed action. I recollect, as an amus- 
ing incident, that in the course of our conversation he 
insisted that Genoa was in Tuscany, and not in Sardinia. 
As far as I was personally concerned, I saw no reason to 
remain longer in "Washington ; but the incoming of a 
new administration is always full of excitement and in- 
terest, and there was besides much in our Isew York 
matters in which I felt a deep concern. 

In those days the New York Democracy was divided 
into two factions, severally known by the euphonious 
titles of " Hunkers " and " Barn-burners," or " Hard- 
shells " and " Soft-shells." I was affiliated with the 
"Hunkers." Between those two factions there was a 
fierce struggle waging for the possession of the Federal 
offices in the citv of New York. And even within the 



166 MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. 

ranks of eacli there were competing candidates. For 
instance, both Mr. John J. Cisco and Mr. Augustus 
ScHELL desired to be made Collector of the Port. It 
was claimed in behalf of the former that, upon the oc- 
casion of his declining a noniination for the office of 
Mayo]-, it was arranged that he should have the unani- 
mous support of liis faction, the " Hunkers," for tlie Col- 
lectorship; and that Mr. Schell, who belonged to the 
same subdivision of the party, was committed to the 
transaction. But when the time came to make the ap- 
pointment, Mr. Schell, who seems not to have considered 
himself so committed, allowed his friends to press his 
own name for the same position. The result was that 
Secketaey Maecy cut the knot by having his old friend, 
Mr. IIeman J. Kedfield, who happened to be accident- 
ally in Washington, after spending the winter in Flor- 
ida, made Collector of the Port of ISTew York. At the 
same time, to Mr. Cisco was tendered the ofKce of Assist- 
ant Treasurer of the United States in that city, which he 
was at first very reluctant to accept. Fortunately for 
the country and for himself, he finally was induced to 
yield to the persuasions of his friends, and to take the 
position. He continued to hold it until the first day of 
July, in the year ISe-i, when he peremptorily i-esigned it, 
his health having become seriously impaired by so long 
a term of arduous official service. For eleven years, 
and under tiiree successive administrations, he had dis- 
charged the at all times severe, and during the war over- 
whelming, duties of liis office with the greatest ability, 
fidelity, judgment, and delicacy. He several times be- 
fore his final withdrawal had tendered his resignation, 
but no President or Secretai-y of the Treasury, even al- 



OFFICE- SEEKING AND OFFICE-SEEKERS. \Q1 

though of opposite politics to his own, liad consented to 
accept it. 

At a later period, under Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Schell be- 
came Collector of the Port, and discharged the duties 
of the office in a manner entirely acceptable to the Gov- 
ernment. He was very vigilant in regard to smuggling, 
and the wags used to say that his name should be changed 
from Augustus Schell to Augustus Seizek. 

Before any final decision was arrived at by General 
Pierce and his Cabinet in regard to the New York Col- 
lectorslTip, Mr. Marcy sent for me to inquire whether 
the late Mr. John M. Beadhurst, wlio was then an old 
man, still retained tlie vigor of former years, telling me 
that, if I could give a satisfactory answ^er to the question, 
the office would be placed at his disposal. I was com- 
pelled to tell him that the gentleman to M'hom he refer- 
red had been prostrated by a stroke of paralysis some 
time before, and that the condition of his health render- 
ed it impossible for him to discharge any laborious du- 
ties. 

All the Federal appointments in the city of Xew York 
were simultaneously announced. They were about equal- 
ly distributed between the two factions. On the same 
day, and after they had been made public, I was dining 
at Willard's Hotel. Mr. Marcy, who was temporarily 
stopping there, occupied a seat at the same table, opposite 
to me. I had a bottle of hock, and I asked the Secretary 
to take wine with me. As the w^aiter was filling his 
glass, he facetiously exclaimed, " Hie, haec, hoc !" "All 
right. Governor," I replied ; " something neuter will not 
hurt you after the very decidedly masculine and femi- 
nine appointments which have just been made!" He 



158 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

laiiglied ; and I then asked him whether he had recom- 
mended them, or simply acquiesced in them. As some 
of them were known to be very objectionable to him, he 
did not vouchsafe any reply. He was an inveterate 
snuffer, and was constantly to be seen with his long fore- 
finger and thumb applying a pinch to his nose, his head 
in the mean while cast down in deep meditation. 

About this time he received a letter which afforded 
him immense amusement, and which he showed to every 
body whom he met. It was from a person in West Troy, 
New York, who begged to remind him that he had been 
a private in a company commanded by the Governor, 
when he marched to the Canadian frontier in the year 
1813. He supposed that he might have long since for- 
gotten his very existence, and he therefore took the liber- 
ty to inform him that, after the war was ended, he had 
settled in "West Troy as a mechanic of some sort, had 
married, and had reared a family of children. He had 
been reasonably prosperous all his life, and had until 
recently been in the enjoyment of uninterrupted domestic 
happiness. But since the election a strange and insane 
passion had taken possession of his wife. She was un- 
alterably determined to be the wife of the Postmaster at 
"West Troy, even if, in order to be so, she were compelled 
to commit bigamy ! Under these circumstances, he ap- 
pealed to his old commander to save him from a life of 
future wretchedness, and his wife from destruction, by 
getting him appointed to the office. The Secretary en- 
joyed the joke so hugely that, after some inquiries about 
his correspondent's fitness, he went to Postmaster- Gen- 
eral Campbell, and had the commission made out for 
him. 



APPOINTMENT AND DISAPPOINTMENT. \Q^ 

Havino; received renewed assurances from the Presi- 
dent that my matter was finally settled, I returned home 
to await results. 

Weeks passed away without any action in relation to the 
foreign aj)pointments. I was confined to my bed with a 
severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism, when one day 
the morning newspaper was brought me to read. It con- 
tained a complete list of the new diplomatic appointees, 
and my name was not included. A gentleman from Vir- 
ginia was to go to Sardinia. 

After a while I returned to Washington. The Presi- 
dent received me with open arms, as he had always pre- 
viously been accustomed to do. I remember that he 
wore a stunning dressing-gown of black velvet, lined with 
cherry-colored silk, which some admiring lady had sent 
to him. lie used to wear it not only in his private apart- 
ments, but also in the executive rooms, when he received 
the dignitaries of the Senate and others upon business. 
Before I could begin the speech of mild reproach whicli 
I had prepared for the occasion, he cut me off by telling 
me that, notwithstanding his interest in my behalf, it had 
been determined, for reasons which I could better com- 
prehend than he could explain, to send Mr. August Bel- 
mont to Holland, and that this rendered it impossible to 
accord another position of the same character and grade 
to the city of New York. It was believed that Mr. Bel- 
mont had contributed largely of his means toward the 
election, and Mr. Daniel E. Sickles had been in Wash- 
ington ever since the inauguration in the interest of that 
gentleman, as was supposed. 

The President went on to say that I had arrived at 
Washington at a very opportune moment, and that it 

H 



170 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

was within my power to do a great favor to liimself,as 
well as to Mr. Buchanan, then lately appointed Minister 
to England. Mr. Appleton, of Maine, who had been 
commissioned as his Secretary of Legation, for private 
reasons iiad suddenly been compelled to abandon the 
thought of accompanying him. Mr. Buchanan was be- 
sieged by applicants for the place, and would be delight- 
ed to be spared further annoyance by having a suitable 
appointment made for him. " I expect Buchanan here," 
he said, " every minute." In a word, he offered me the 
office. At first I positively declined, and urged many 
objections. Among others, I mentioned that I had no 
personal acquaintance with Mr. Buchanan, that the com- 
pensation was very small, and that I did not possess suf- 
ficient private means to enable me to live as the Secretaiy 
of the American Legation in London ought to live. He 
pooh-poohed all this ; told me that as Mr. Buchanan was 
a bachelor we could keep house together, and thus reduce 
expenses, and finally insisted that I should go directly to 
Mr. Makcy with directions from him to make out my 
commission. I was carried away by him as by a torrent ; 
and before I hardly knew what I was doing, I found my- 
self in the presence of the Secretary of State, who listen- 
ed to my statement with evident surprise, " What can 
the President mean," he asked, " by saying that he ex- 
pects Mr. Buchanan at the Executive Mansion every 
minute ? I have no reason to think that he even in- 
tends to visit Washington again before sailing for En- 
gland." He then went on to say that he doubted much 
whether Mr. Buchanan would be so pleased as the Pres- 
ident supposed at an appointment made without pre- 
viously consulting him ; that he was one of the leading 



JAMES BUCHANAN. \^\ 

statesmen of the country, and that, in his judgment, it 
would not answer to saddle a Secretary of Legation upon 
him, as might be done in the case of some of " those 
other fellows." That he would make out the com- 
mission, as directed ; but that in the mean time he ad- 
vised me as a friend to go to Wheatland, and have a 
conference with Mr, Buchanan upon the subject. 

Thereupon I went directly back to the President. He 
told me that he did not intend to be understood as ex- 
pecting Mr. Buchanan every minute at the Executive 
Mansion, but in "Washington. lie urged me to take the 
first train for Philadelphia, and thence to Lancaster. He 
was certain that I would find it with Mr. Buchanan just 
as he had told me. He sat down and wrote a very strong 
letter to him, of which I was to be the bearer. I took 
leave of him, and very foolishly, and against my own 
better judgment, started for Wheatland. 

When I arrived there, I found the old statesman at 
home. He received me courteously, and carefully read 
my letter of introduction. He then told me that he had 
already been treated with such gross discourtesy by the 
President that it was very doubtful whether he would 
not throw up his commission, and not go to England 
at all. That, at all events, he did not intend to return to 
Washington. That about a fortnight before he had 
written an important letter to the President, which re- 
quired, and should have received, a prompt answer. 
That no reply coming, after the interval of a week he 
had addressed him another, and, in decided language, re- 
quested that it have immediate attention. And that the 
first word which he had since received from the Execu- 
tive was the letter which I presented to him, and which 



172 MEMOBIES OF 3fANY MEN. 

in no way referred to the subject of his two commnnica- 
tions. As to tlie Secretaryship of Legation, he went on 
to explain to me that, before Mr. Appleton was appoint- 
ed, the office had been influentially sohcited for two gen- 
tlemen, one of them a friend of his own from Pennsyl- 
vania, whom, he admitted, he did not consider competent 
to discharge the duties, and the other a South Carolinian, 
who possessed every necessary qualification for the posi- 
tion. That he had not again heard from either of them 
since Mr. Appleton had declined, and that, under all the 
circumstances, he was not yet prepared to definitely ex- 
press himself. Of course, I felt, for the time, infinitely 
disgusted with the President, although I had no occasion 
to find fault with Mr. Buchanan. He assured me that he 
M'ould give the subject his best consideration, and com- 
municate with me before he sailed, if he sailed at all. I 
parted from him, and never saw him again. The thou- 
sands who knew him w^ll never forget his white neck- 
cloth tied awry, and his head perched on one side like 
that of an inquisitive bird. 

I returned home, and shortly afterward went to Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts, for the summer. While there I 
received a civil letter from Mr. Buchanan, telling me 
that he had selected for his Secretary of Legation a gen- 
tleman of great abilities and unquestionable fitness. A 
few days later, Mr. Daniel E. Sickles was gazetted as 
tlie apjDointee. I have always understood that Mr. Maecy, 
with whom Mr. Sickles was not a favorite, declined to 
sign his commission, and that it was finally signed by 
Mr. Dudley Mann, the Assistant Secretary of State. 

I again went to Washington late in the summer. The 
President took me to his heart as usual. It was impos- 



LOVE'S LAST SHIFT. 173 

sible to entertain malice against him. There was a new 
Consul to Le appointed at London, and, notwithstanding 
my past experiences, I ventured to ask him for the ap- 
pointment. I must do him the justice to say that upon 
this occasion he gave me an evasive ans^ver. He insisted, 
however, that I should come and dine with him tliat af- 
ternoon. I accepted the invitation, and was received by 
him in the Blue Room at the appointed hour. There was 
but one other guest, a very old gentleman, with an enor- 
mous ruffle to his shirt, whom he introduced to me as 
General Campbell, of Texas. At dinner we were the 
only three persons present. Mrs. Piekce never came 
down when there was company. I noticed that the Pres- 
ident took no wine, but placed his hand upon his glass 
every time the butler passed him. The conversation 
was neither very interesting nor very dull, and was ren- 
dered very formal by Mr. CAMrBELL introducing the 
word " sir " between every three or four words that he 
uttered, after the old-fashioned American habit. After 
dinner, we again returned to the Blue Room, and in a 
few minutes rose to depart. The President followed us, 
with one arm around the neck of each. He then turned 
to the old gentleman, and told him that he did not wish 
him to consider his introduction to me as a casual one; 
that he had intentionally brought us together, as we 
were both among his dearest friends, and that he hoped 
we would ourselves become very close friends. It is un- 
necessary to say that we were both surprised at this effu- 
sion, and I, at least, failed to comprehend the occasion for 
it. As we went out it was raining. General Caisipbell 
had an umbrella, but I was unprovided with one. The 
venerable gentleman insisted upon accompanying me to 



][74r MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. 

Willard's Hotel, although his own road led in the oppo- 
site direction. The next day he called npon me soon 
after breakfast. A few days later it was given to the 
public that General Kobekt S. Campbell was appointed 
Consul to London, and the mystery of Mr. Pierce's con- 
duct was solved. 

Once more, and only once, I visited Washington dur- 
ing the time of his administration. This was in the year 
1854. I called to take leave of him, as I was going 
abroad as a private citizen. He seemed to love me even 
more than ever. He told me that I did quite right to 
go, and that he would "jump" me into the first diplo- 
matic vacancy that should occur in Europe. These were 
his very w^ords ; but I knew him thoroughly by this time, 
and placed no reliance upon his promise. The position 
of Secretary of Legation in France was, however, form- 
ally tendered to mo in the year 1855, to be declined. 

I saw Mr. Pierce but once again. This was after 
the expiration of his official term, and just after his 
return from a visit to Europe. I accidentally met him 
on Washington Street, in Boston. He wore a flaming 
scarlet neck-cloth, and a suit of clothes of some very 
light material, which ill became a man of his years and 
position. He was as affectionate as of old, and appar- 
ently as serenely unconscious that I ever had any cause 
to complain of him. Certainly if I had, I did not treas- 
ure it up, and I remember no more delightful chat than 
the one I had with him that afternoon about old times. 

I have written the foregoing pages not to ventilate the 
wrongs of a disappointed office-seeker, but to illustrate 
some of the peculiarities of a man who once held the 
first position in our country. 



CHAPTEK II. 

AT this time General " Sam " Houston was one of 
the United States Senators from Texas. He was, 
physically, a magnificent specimen of manhood. His 
dress was extravagantly oiitre^ suggestive of both the 
f rontier's-man and the Indian. He possessed a great mind 
and a great heart, and his many peculiarities were harm- 
less and endearing, rather than repulsive. His courtesy 
to women was remarkable, and he never addressed one 
otherwise than as " lady." " Good-morning, lady^'' was his 
invariable salutation to any fair friend whom he met at 
the breakfast-table or elsewhere during the earlier hours 
of the day. He resided at Willard's when in Wash- 
ington ; and although his room was replete with the ap- 
pliances of civilized life, he discarded, or pretended to 
discard, the use of many of them. Buffalo robes were 
spread upon the carpet, and upon these he slept in prefer- 
ence to using the bed. He had a printed poster upon 
the wall bearing the words, " My hour for retiring is* 
nine o'clock." This was a silent monition to visitors to 
withdraw when that hour arrived. But it was the popu- 
lar belief that the restless old warrior was in the habit 
of nightly pacing the floor until the small hours of the 
morning, before he sought repose upon his extemporized 
couch of skins. 

The eccentric, able, honest, and cynical " Mike" Walsh 
was then a member of the House of Representatives 



170 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. 

from Kew York. Mike was the perpetrator of many 
practical jokes, wliicli furnished subjects for "Washington 
gossip. A fellow-member of the House, whose private 
avocation was that of a hotel-keeper, rose to make his 
elaborately prepared maiden speech. As he proceeded, 
Mike, whose seat was distant from his, would, at every 
panse, call out in his deep, bass voice, loud enough to be 
heard by those in his immediate neighborhood, but not 
so loud as to reach the orator's ear, " John, a pitcher of 
ice-water to Ko. 122 !" "William, answer the bell of No. 
139 !" etc., etc. Upon the same fellow-member he played 
the rather rough joke of sending him an invitation, in the 
name of the President, to dine at the Executive Mansion. 
That there might be no occasion for an answer, the in- 
vitation was only delivered an hour before the appoint- 
ed time for dinner. The victim, suspecting nothing, ar- 
rayed himself in evening dress, and started for the White 
House. He was closely followed by Mike, and half a 
dozen of his cronies whom he had let into the secret, for 
the purpose of witnessing the discomfiture of the unex- 
pected guest. As the President had liappened to go to 
Baltimore that very afternoon, this discomfiture was com- 
plete. AVhether the then somewhat unsophisticated suf- 
ferer ever discovered or not who had played this "Hea- 
then Chinee " trick upon him, I am not aware. 

I saw Daniel Webster under the following circum- 
stances. In the month of November, in the year 1851, 
I accompanied Mr. Augustus Schell to Washington, for 
the purpose of persuading Mr. Webster, then Secretary 
of State, to consent to deliver a Memorial Address be- 
fore the New York Historical Society on the twenty- 
third day of the next month. Mr. AVebster had previ- 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 177 

ously declined a written invitation to do so, but we were 
successful in overcoming his objections. Accordingly 
he came to New Yorlc at the proper time, and took lodg- 
ings, as he always did when in that city, at the Astor 
House. At about seven o'clock of the evening appoint- 
ed for the address, Mr. Schell and I called there with a 
carriage for the purpose of conducting Mr. Webster to 
Niblo's Theatre, the place selected for its delivery. He 
kept us waiting a long time in his drawing-room, while 
he was dressing in his bedroom. When he at last came 
out to us he looked wan and exhausted, and appeared al- 
most inanimate. He was accompanied by his private 
secretary, Mr. Abbott ; and while we were driving from 
the hotel to the theatre, hardly a word was spoken by 
any of the party. Once only Mr. Webstee opened his 
mouth, and, in those deep, sepulchral tones which those 
who have heard them will never forget, asked, " Abbott, 
what is that quotation from EuKirrDES ?" When we ar- 
rived at the theatre, the distinguished orator was met by 
a committee of the society and conducted to a private 
room, that he might rest and refresh himself before pre- 
senting himself to the public. Knowing his habits at that 
time, they had provided a bottle of excellent old brandy 
for his use, which, with a pitcher of water and a tum- 
bler, stood upon a table in the room. Advancing to it, 
Mr. Webstek almost filled the tumbler with the spirit, 
and then, tempering it with about a table-spoonful of wa- 
ter, drank it down in two or three gulps. The bottle 
was then put aside for future use ; and almost immedi- 
ately thereafter Mr. Webster w^as conducted to the stage 
and presented to the audience by the president of the 
society, the late ex-Ltectenant-Goveenor Luther Bra- 

H2 



178 3IEM0RIES OP 3IANY MEN. 

DISH. He was, of course, received with vociferous ap- 
plause, and without delay commenced his address. At 
first his voice was so low as to be scarcely audible, his 
utterance was hesitating, and his choice of words fre- 
quently unhappy. Gradually, as the stimulus of the 
brandy operated upon him, he warmed up and became 
fluent and eloquent ; and when he had finished, it was 
conceded that he had made one of the most masterly 
and successful of his later efforts. By this time he was 
again exhausted and overpowered by the weariness and 
listlessness which had become habitual to liim. He was 
reconducted to the committee-room, that he might take 
some more of the brandy before returning to his hotel ; 
but, unfortunately, in the mean time some toper had 
scented the bottle to its hiding-place, and there was not 
a drop left in it. Mr. Scuell and myself accompanied 
him home, and left him moi'e aj^athetic than we had 
found him. 

He had been persuaded to remain in New York an- 
other da}^, for the purpose of presiding at a meeting to 
be held the next evening in honor of the then recently 
deceased novelist, James Fenimoke Cooper. I had known 
Mr. Coopee during the later years of his life, and used 
to see him occasionally when he visited ISTew York. He 
was an amazingly fluent talker as well as speaker and 
writer ; and he affected an intense bitterness against the 
institutions of his native country in his conversation as 
well as in his writings. I can see him now, in my mind's 
eye, standing with his back to the fire-place in my office, 
with his legs apart and his coat-tails under his arms, 
pouring out diatribes which did not seem half in 
earnest. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 179 

The following preliminary notice appeared in tlie New 
York newspapers of the day : 

"At a meeting of friends of the late JAMES FENIMORE COOP- 
ER, held in the City Hall, in the city of New York, pursuant to no- 
tice, the following gentlemen were appointed a Committee to make 
the necessary arrangements for a suitable demonstration of respect 
for Mr. Cooper's memory : 

Washington Irving, George BajsCroft, 

GuLiAN C.Verplanck, Lewis Gaylord Clark, 

John Duer, John A. Dix, 

James K. Paulding, George P. Morris, 

John W. Francis, Samuel Osgood, 

Richard B. Kimball, Charles Anthon, 

Francis L. Hawks, Charles F. Briggs, 

WiLLiAJvi C. Bryant, Maunsell B. Field, 

William W. Campbell, Parke Godwin, 

Fitz-Greene Halleck, Jonathan M. Wainwright, 

RuFus W. Griswold, Donald G. Mitchell, 

Charles King, N. P. Willis. 

"At a subsequent meeting of the Committee, held at the Astor 
House, on the 25th of November, it was reported by a si^ecial Com- 
mittee that negotiations were in progress with Mr. H. Greenough 
for a monument to IVIr. Cooper ; that Mr. Bryant had consented 
to pronounce a discourse on the life and genius of Mr. Cooper, on 
the evening of the 24th of December, at Tripler Hall ; and that 
Daniel Webster had consented to preside on that occasion. 

" Washington Irving, President. 

" Fitz-Greene Halleck, 



RuFus W. Griswold, ' Secretaries.- 

The meeting was a crowded and a brilliant one. Mr. 
"Webstek, in his opening address, faltered and hesitated, 
and talked as if he did not know the difference between 
Fenimore Cooper and Mcngo Parke. Mr. Bryant's dis- 
course was, as was to be expected, an appreciative and 
elegant essay, but his delivery of it was, as is usual with 



ISO MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

him, without animation. Then followed some of the 
most brilliant and magnetic speeches to which I ever 
listened. Kev. Dr. Bethune, one of the finest ora- 
tors of any country or any time, made the room ring 
with applause at his eloquent periods. Geoege Ban- 
croft, the Eev. Dr. Osgood, Dr. John W. Francis, and 
Mr. G. P. K. James, followed with feeling tributes to the 
memory of the great novelist. Mr. Webstee, who had 
been half asleep, became aroused. When all the speak- 
ers of the evening had concluded, he arose from his 
chair, advanced to the edge of the platform, and deliv- 
ered a short closing address of marvelous elegance and 
appropriateness, his glowing and admirably constructed 
paragraphs falling upon the audience like a magnificent 
funeral dirge after lighter music. Stimulus was essen- 
tial to his wearied faculties, and whether it came in the 
form of brandy or of eloquence, it served alike to vivify 
them into temporary animation. 

And this was the last of the Cooper movement, so well 
initiated and so successfully carried on to this point. 
There is no monument in Central Park or elsewhere, so 
far as I know, to the spirited, waywai'd romancer, any 
more than there is to the gentle Irving. Shame upon 
New York if statues of both do not soon adorn that mao;- 
nificent pleasure-ground of which its citizens are so just- 
ly proud ! 

I never saw John Tylee when he was President of the 
United States. A very good story was told of him at 
the time that he succeeded as Vice-President to the Chief 
Magistracy upon the death of President Harrison. It 
was said that he commissioned his Irish coachman to pur- 
chase a cari'iage for him. After seai-chini>; "Washington 



FILLMORE AND VAN BUREX. ^gl 

a day or two, Pat came to his master and reported that 
he had found a very liandsome one for sale, but that it 
had been used a few times. " That will never do," an- 
swered Mr. Tyler ; " it Avould not be proper for the Pres- 
ident of the United States to drive a second-hand car- 
riage." "And, sure, what are you but a second-hand 
President ?" was the prompt and unanswerable reply. 

I saw Mr. Fillmoke, another " second-hand " President, 
in Washington, but had no acquaintance with him. He 
looked the President better than any man whom I have 
ever seen who occupied the office. It was somewhat 
singular that a lawyer who never held more than a sec- 
ondary rank at a provincial bar should attain so eminent 
a position. He certainly was one of the most discreet 
Presidents we ever had, and his administration was an 
eminently successful one. Mrs. Fillmore died a few 
days after the inauguration of Mr. Pierce, in one of the 
same rooms in Willard's Hotel which that gentleman had 
just quitted. I saw the venerable ex-President in Albany 
last spring, upon the occasion of the delivery of a eulogy 
upon the late Mr, Seward before the New York State 
Government by Mr. Charles Francis Adams. Mr. Fill- 
more looked the same fresh, dignified gentleman that he 
did when at the head of the nation. It is a subject of 
congratulation that our Chief Magistrates, after their re- 
tirement, have always comported themselves- in a manner 
to do credit to themselves and the country. 

I knew the late John Van Buren, as who did not? 
There never lived another man in this country who 
wasted such opportunities and such talents. His power to 
adapt himself to all sorts of people and to all kinds of 
occasions was simply marvelous. His faculty of ready 



182 IfEMORIES OF 3rANY MEN. 

and apt speech, his equal happiness as a stump and an 
after-dinner orator, his brilliant wit, and his occasional 
cynicism, united to make liim a remarkable character. 
He was an indifferent leader, but an admirable executive. 
When lie led a portion of his party at Buffalo, in the year 
1848, to repudiate the nomination made by the I^ational 
Convention of General Cass for the Presidency, simply 
on account of the disappointment of his father, the un- 
successful competitor of Cass, he did much to wreck liis 
own political fortunes, although he unwittingly planted 
a germ there which grew to be a powerful agent in the 
regeneration of the country. 

Speaking of General Cass reminds me of a pun which 
was once perpetrated upon his name. It will be recol- 
lected that he was United States Minister to France 
wliile Louis Philippe was king. When he returned 
home from his mission, he wrote and published a rather 
weak book, under the title of " France : its King, Court, 
and Government." Somebody was ridiculing the book 
in the presence of a wag, who thereupon remarked that 
it was impossible for Cass to cross the sea {c) without 
making an ass of himself. 

But to return to John Van Buren. During the au- 
tumn of the year 1851 there was a terrible contest wag- 
ing between the " Hunker " and " Barn-burner " factions 
of the dominant party in the city of New York. An 
excellent but very young gentleman, afterward a mem- 
ber of Congress, and now holding a high office under the 
municipal government of that city, happened to be the 
" Hunker" candidate as delegate from the Fifteenth Ward 
to the State Convention to be held at Syracuse, in oppo- 
sition to John Van Buken, wlio was the " Barn-burner " 



JOHN VAN BUBEN. I33 

nominee. There was a great deal of excitement at tlie 
polls, possibly some " ballot-stuffing." The result was 
that the gentleman anonymously referred to was return- 
ed, and received the certificate of election, w^hile Yajst 
BuEEN announced that he would go to Syracuse to con- 
test the seat. 

Accordingly, the day before the convention was to as- 
semble, I with several others started for Syracuse in 
company with our candidate. We arrived at Albany in 
tlie evening, and went to Congress Hall for suppfer. 
When we entered the dining-room, whom should we find 
there but Joun Van Buren seated at the head of the 
table, and flanked on either side by several of his prom- 
inent adherents. Our man and ourselves took seats at 
the same table, somewhat lower down, and Mr. Yan Bu- 
EEN, who knew me, saluted me. This was like waving 
a red flag at an enraged bull. Our candidate, who sat 
next to me, at once began to abuse Yan Bueen to me 
in very savage terms. Presently the latter, who knew 
him as well as he knew me, turned to me, and in his 
usual drawling tone, but in quite a loud voice, said, 
"Field, who is that young man who sits next you?" 

"That, Mr. Yan Bueen," I answered, "is Mr. ." 

" Oil ! that is Mr. , is it ?" he rejoined ; " well, 

please give him my compliments, and tell him that he is a 
confounded young politician." Hereat my friend waxed 
only the more angry and violent in his expressions. 

When we arrived at Syracuse, our infuriated candi- 
date threatened to take personal vengeance upon Yan 
Bueen in case he attempted to contest his seat. The 
convention at its first meeting appointed a committee of 
three on credentials, composed of two "' Hunkers " and 



134 MEMOBIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

one " Barn-biirner." They were to meet that afternoon 
in the hotel where we lodged. At the designated time 
we watched them as they went up stairs to their room, 

and saw both and Yan Bdren follow separately 

after them. An hour passed, and we became very nn- 
easy. "VVe feared that a personal encounter might actu- 
ally take place between the contestants. Shortlj' after- 
ward, to our great surprise, we saw Van Buren and 
our friend coming down together. Van Buren having 
his arm around the other's neck, and both laughing in 
the best of humor. It appeared that Van Buren told 
the committee that he did not think that, under any cir- 
cumstances, he could e-^pect the seat to be awarded to 
him by a tribunal so constituted, and therefore declined 
to present his claim. He made a funny speech, and 
by his inimitable facetiousness appeased the angry feel- 
ings of his opponent, and hence the tableau which M'e 
witnessed. Friendship between them was cemented over 
several bottles of champagne, and their personal animosi- 
ties were buried for all time. 



CHAPTER III. 

IN the spring of the year 1S42 I was returning North, 
after spending the winter in Cuba and New Orleans. 
I stopped a day or two at Cincinnati for the purpose of 
visiting an old college friend. Upon my arrival there, 
my friend informed me that Mr. Charles Dickens was 
in town, and was to hold a levee at his hotel that morn- 
ing. He was going to it, and asked me to accompany 
him. At that time I had that admiration, almost hero- 
M'oi'ship, for Dickens M'hich was common to all young 
men in this country immediately after the publication 
of his earlier works. I therefore readily accepted the 
invitation, and we were soon in the presence of the dis- 
tinguished novelist. There were not many persons in 
the room when we entered. Immediately behind us 
followed a small English gentleman of subdued and 
timid manners. Mr. Dickens was standing in front of 
the fire-place, with his coat-tails under his arms, gor- 
geously attired, and covered with velvet and jewelry. 
Mi'S. Dickens was lounging upon a sofa at the farther 
end of the room. We were duly presented by an usher, 
or master of ceremonies, and, after exchanging a few 
words with the author of " Pickwick," retired to give 
place to tlie little Englishman who was behind us. Upon 
being introduced, this gentleman deferentially remarked, 
" I had the pleasure of meeting you, Mr. Dickens, at 
Mr. Lovek's, in shire, two years ago." Dickens 



186 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEK 

looked liira steadily in the face for a minute, and then 
answered in a loud voice, " I never was there in my 
life !" " I beg your pardon," replied his interlocutor, 
overcome w^ith confusion; "it was in the winter, and" 
(naming several persons) " were there at the same time." 
Dickens again gave him a withering look, and after a 
pausj3 repeated in a still more elevated tone, " I tell you, 
sir, I never was there in my life !" Here Mrs. Dickens 
interposed, and, addressing her husband, said, "WI13', 
Charles, you certainly were there, and I was there with 
you; don't you remember the occurrence?" Mr. Dick- 
ens glared at her almost fiercely, and, advancing a step 
or two, with his right hand raised, fairly shouted, " I tell 
you, I never was there in my life !" 1 had never been 
so disenchanted in all my days. The unfortunate En- 
glishman withdrew without another w^ord, and I and 
my friend retired disgusted. I tlien for the first time 
reluctantly appreciated the fact that a man may be a 
great author without being a gentleman, a conclusion 
which I have frequently seen verified in my more ma- 
ture years. 

I became acquainted with Mr. G. P. R. James very 
soon after his arrival in this country in the year 1850. 
His initials stood for Geoege Payne Rainsford, but 
some wag had once dubbed him George Prince liegent, 
and this was believed to be his real name by many who 
did and many who did not know him. His original in- 
tention in coming to America was to settle in Canada, 
but he abandoned that purpose after he had been here a 
short time. He had three sons, none of them then grown 
to manhood, and he thought it better for them to cast 
their fate in a new country than to remain in Eui-ope. 



O. p. R. JAMES. 



187 



He had recently, too, met with very severe pecuniary re- 
verses. He had contracted with a London bookseller 
for the publication of a uniform edition of his novels, to 
be illustrated with steel ens-ravino-s. Tlie eno-raviuffs 
were all ordered and in course of execution, when, after 
the appearance of a few of the volumes, the bookseller 
failed. The engraver brought an action against Mr. 
Jaivies as a j)artner with the publisher in the contract 
with him, was successful in his suit, and the author, 
whose fortune in this instance was similar to that of Sir 
Walter Scott in another, was compelled to pay several 
thousand pounds sterling. This was a severe blow to 
him, and although he had excellent and powerful 
friends at home, such as the late Duke of Northum- 
berland and the present Duke of AVELLmcTON, Mr. 
James, who was then residing at Heidelberg, in Ger- 
many, made up his mind to turn his face westward. He 
came to London before sailing, and among other leave- 
taking calls made one upon the Duee of NoRTHU]\tBER- 
LAND. I have often heard him relate with much emo- 
tion what occurred upon the occasion. He told the 
story of his misfortunes and his purposes to the Duke, 
who listened to the I'ecital with close attention. When 
it was finished, his noble auditor exerted himself to the 
utmost to dissuade him from carrying out his intention 
of leaving Europe. Finding that his arguments failed 
of the desired effect, the Duke asked to be excused for a 
moment. Presently he returned, accompanied by the 
Duchess, and holding in his hand a check upon his bank- 
ers to Mr. James's order, signed, but in blank, begged 
him to accept it and fill in the amount. Tlie Duchess 
added her own entreaties to those of her husband. Mr, 



Igg MUJIOSIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

James firmly, but with overflowing heart, refused to 
accept auy thing, even in the form of a loan. The Duke 
and Duchess had no children, and could afford to be, 
as they were, munificently liberal. The Duke, better 
known by his earlier title of Lord Pkuduoe, was an un- 
sung Maecenas to artists and literary men. 

Mr. Jaivies was a gentleman by birth, and a Tory — of 
a very mild form, however — in politics. His father was 
an ofiicer in the British Navy, and commanded the frig- 
ate which bombarded New London in the War of 1812. 
Young James was originally in the army, and after a 
short service upon the Continent during the Napoleonic 
wars, was wounded, taken prisoner, and detained upon 
parole in France until after the battle of Waterloo. An 
incident which occurred during his confinement there 
cast a gloom upon the rest of his life. For some cause 
which he never explained to me, he became engaged in 
a duel with a French oflicer. He escaped unhurt him- 
self, but wounded his adversary, who died after linger- 
ing for months. I have still in my possession the old- 
fashioned pistols with which this duel was fought, which 
my deceased friend presented to me at the time of our 
early acquaintance. It was during the period of his 
captivity that he devoted himself, for want of other oc- 
cupation, to thoroughly reading up French history, and 
storing his mind with that mass of details upon which 
he was accustomed to draw for his future novels with- 
out having to refer to books. 

After the pacification, he returned to England with 
the intention of devoting himself to a dii)lomatic career. 
Llis father had some interest with Lord Lfv'eepool, then 
Prime Minister, and he secured from him the promise 



JAMES AND SIR WALTER SCOTT. J^§9 

of an early vacancy for his son. Shortly afterward 
LoKD LivEKPOOL infomicd Captain James that he could 
give his son the position of Secretary to an Extraordi- 
nary Embassy about to be sent to China, but that he did 
not advise him to accept it, as it was only of a temporary 
character, and would not necessarily lead to preferment, 
whereas he expected to be able soon to find for him a 
position in the regular corps. Following this advice, 
the proffered place was declined, and a week there- 
after Lord Liverpool suddenly died of a stroke of ap- 
oplexy. ^ 

In the mean time young James had written "Riche- 
lieu," his first Avork of fiction. He had kept his manuscript 
concealed from his father, who belonged to the old class 
of the Laikd of ArcniNLECK, who considered it a deg- 
radation for a gentleman to print a book. He managed, 
however, to obtain an introduction to Sir Walter Scott ; 
and, taking his manuscript with him, he went to Abbots- 
ford, and with the temerity of a fledgling, asked Sir 
Walter to read it, and give him his opinion of it. This 
the great man promised to do. Six months passed, and 
no news came from Scotland. One day JxVmes was riding 
in Bond Street, when his horse shying, pressed against 
the side of a carriage which happened to be passing. 
There was but one person in it. Putting out his head 
to see what was the matter, this person, who happened 
to be Sir Walter, who had just come to town, recog- 
nized the young author, and invited him to call upon him 
at his hotel the next morning. James went, of course, 
and, to his surprise and delight, received from Sir Wal- 
ter the warmest encomium of his book. He was further 
so kind as, at his request, to reduce to writing what he 



190 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

had said of it. Possessed of this, Mr. James easily found 
a publisher, to whom, however, he sold his copyright for 
a song. " Richelieu " was immensely successful, and his 
next books, of which he retained the ownership, brought 
him vei-y large prices for tliose days. 

When Mr. James first came to Xew York, he took 
lodgings M'ith his family at the Kew York Hotel. lie 
had not been here a week before I began to see him al- 
most daily. For some time he was busy presenting his 
letters of introduction. Among others, he had one to 
IIoEACE Gkeeley, and he personally called with it upon 
the philosopher. He found him within, and directly aft- 
er his interview with him, he came to me. He summed 
up the impression produced upon him by Mr. Gkeeley 
by saying that he had " the head of a Soceates and the 
face of a baby !" 

Mr. James soon found a residence in a hotel incompati- 
ble with the prosecution of any literary labor. So many 
people constantly called upon him that he had no com- 
mand whatever of his own time. Accordingly he desired 
to find a place, a little out of town, if possible, where he 
could be comparatively free from intrusion. After some 
looking around, he was offered and finally made an agree- 
ment to hire Mr. Chaeles Astoe Bkisted's house at Hell 
Gate, opposite Astoria. The house, which originally be- 
longed to Mr. Beisted's grandfather, the late Mr. Joun 
Jacob Astoe, was not adapted to winter occupation, and 
was only partly furnished. After he had removed to it, 
James came to me with a plaintive account of his difli- 
culties in getting into it, and of his discomforts when 
he got there. A day or two thereafter he sent me tlie 
following amusing lines, and was to finish the story of 



THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. 



191 



his mishaps in a second " fytte," which, liowever, I pre- 
sume he never wrote, as it never came to hand. 

THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. 

Dear Field, I will give you a picture, in verse, 
Of disasters it grieves my steel-pen to rehearse, 
As trotting fast on the high-road to the devil, 
All cookless, and manless, with coachman uncivil, 
We set out by some strange arrangement of Fate, 
To make our abode just outside of Hell Gate. 

But first let me show you the course of the packing. 

The cramming, the jamming, the wracking, the cracking ; 

With boxes too few to contain all our store, 

And each minute bringing some thingumbob more; 

While Walter, and Courtney, and Florence, and I, 

To put gallons in pmt-pots laboriously try. 

And Charlie himself must have finger in pie. 

The scene was the parlor, the whole was dramatic, 
And wanting in naught but a little salt attic : 
In her own quiet chamber, hard by, " Stabat Mater," 
And first of the histrions, " loquitur Pater." 

G. P. R— "Come bustle, come bustle, come bundle the traps. 
Come pack up the bonnets and poke in the caps! 
The porters are damning. 
The doors are all slamming, 
Portmanteaus are cramming; 
Come, fill uj) the gaps !" 

C. — " Oh, dear me ! oh, dear ! 
How marvelous queer ! 
Here's Whipple's oration got in the elop-pail !" 

G. P. R.— " Leave it there, 
And don't stare, 
It will very well fare. 



192 M-EMOBIES OF MANY MEN. 

One half the world's verse, 
More than half of its prose 
Is slop, and at last to the slop-pail it goes." 

F. — " Here are Everett's speeches ; oh, where shall they 
go?" 

G. P. R. — "On Fame's highest platform, where clouds are below. 
And sunshine above them, and clearness around, 
And flowers few, but lovely, besjjangle the ground — 
But I'm thinking of tropes, when I should think of locks. 
For Cicero, printed, must go in a box — 
Put him in beside SuiiNER — " 

F. — " They'll never agree." 

G. P.R.— "Jam them tight. 
They can't fight. 
At least for one night, 
However opposed to each other they be." 

W. — "Here are Irveng and Lovtell and Hawthorne and 
Holmes, 
And Bryant and Tuckerman, too ; 
And hundreds of vagrant poetical tomes — 
Oh, dearie me ! what shall I do ?" 

G. P. R. — "Put Irving and Addison close side by side. 
And Goldsmith as near as may be; 
Three such kindred siairits may well take a ride, 
E'en were it to Eternity. 

'Tis but to Hell Gate, 
And the fiat of Fate 
Has decreed that they should not go in: 
For the devil himself. 
Though a covetous elf. 
Would not suffer such spirits within. 
The English poet would preach peace 
To damned souls longing for release; 
The Irishman would teach simplicity 
To knaves condemned for earth's duplicity; 



THE JOURNEY TO HELL GATE. 193 

And tears and smiles at Irvlng's voice 
Would deck the face of hard remorse, 
Till, all forgetful of the curse, 
Hell's tenants would themselves rejoice, 
And Rip Vai^ Winkxe's solemn souls. 
With laughter cheer theii* game at bowls. 

Put them in ! put them in ! 

'Tis a traveling sin 
To waste time in iJacking a box to a pin. 

If the binding is hurt, 

'Tis but the bard's shirt; 

He himself will be found 

All immortal and sound 
Whatever may happen to damage his skin." 

C. — " Here's Mr. Thackeray." 

G. P. R. — " He rhymes to quackery." 

W. — "Here's Charlie Dickens, 

And his whole brood of chickens." 

F. — " Here are Hallaji and Hunt, 
And Johnson and Blunt, 
And a score or two more 
Lying round on the floor." 

G. P. R. — "Cram them in ! cram them in ! 
'Tis a traveling sin 
To waste time in packing a box to a pin." 

W. — "Here are papers. 
And tapers. 
And rapiers. 
And callers. 
And things from the drapers." 

C. — " Here are pistols, 
And crystals, 
And rifles. 
And trifles, 



194 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

And holsters, 

And bolsters, 

And beds made of osier. 

And things from the hosier, 

And boxes of furs. 

To say nothing of curs, 

And poor little Frizzy."* 

G. P. R. — "You make my head dizzy. 

Cram them in ! cram them in ! 

'Tis a traveling sin 

To waste time in packing a box to a pin." 

W.— "They're all in at last!" 

C. — " Don't get on so fast ! 

Here are lucifer matches. 
And a box for dispatches." 

F. — "A pair of nail-nippers. 
An old pair of slijapers 
That came from Morocco, 
And lots of rococco." 

G. P. R. — " All presents from friends I shall never see more, 
Till the journey of life, like this journey, is o'er ; 
But their gifts still to fancy shall call back their faces. 
And yield the dead present the past's living graces. 
Oh ! put them by safe, for an hour oft may come 
When I long for some sight to remind me of home — 
Of that home o'er the waters, where hope's early sight 
First presented the world all resplendent and bright ; 
Where memories crowd, and the flowers of past years 
Blossomed forth in life's mom to be watered by tears : 
Like the lily, that opens its breast for one day, 
And closes forever at evening's last ray ! 
The dear ones around us the present may cheer, 
But we can not forget there were others as dear. 

* A certain traveled and highly accomplished spaniel — a friend 
of the family. 



THE JOUBNEY TO HELL GATE. ^95 

Kind friends may be near us — bright skies overhead — 
But we still must remember the land of our dead ; 
And, though this new world my dead ashes may share, 
One half of my heart is, at least, buried there ! 
On, on with your work 

W.— " It is done " 

C— " Oh, what fun ! 

We shall get there ere nightfall, as sure as a gun !" 

G. P. R. — " But the cart's breaking down with the weight of 
the packages." 

W. — " Ere 'tis home, there will be a rare number of crack- 
ages." 

G. P. R. — " And the wine's left behind, t'other end of the city ; 
"We must temperate dine — " 

C. — " Dear me, what a pity !" 

G. P. R. — " Well, you all get into the carriage and go. 

And I will ran oflF to the stores down below; 
Of barrels and bottles make speedy purveyance, 
And follow you fast in some other conveyance." 

'Tis all done — 

They are gone, 

Wife, daughter, and sons. 
Cart, carriage, and boxes, beds, bolsters, and guns ; 
While, like a sea-weed on some oyster-bed thrown, 
I am left on the pave of New York alone. 

[Ye end of ye Fu'ste Fytte.] 

It will be seen from the foregoing specimen that Mr. 
James wrote capital squibs. I find a copy of another 
transcribed in my scrap-book, where two were concern- 
ed, and where I am not sure that James came off with 
the highest honors. 



196 ME3I0RIES OF MANY MEX. 

On the 25th day of December (Christmas), 1840, when 
the excitement in diplomatic circles upon the subject of 
the so-called Eastern question was at its height, he dined 
with Sir Hamilton and Lady Seymouk in Brussels. Sey- 
mour's note of invitation ran : "Will you and yoor wife 
come and eat a turkey with us ?" The dinner was a 
very good one, but there was no turkey ; and on the fol- 
lowing day Mr. James sent to him the lines below : 

" On the kotorious Breach of Political Faith committed by 
Sir G. Hamilton Seymour, G. C. H., etc., etc., etc.. Her 
Britannic Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiahy at the 
Court of Belgium, on the 25th of December, 1840. 

" Most perfidious, most base of all living ministers, 
You deserve to fall back to the rank of plain misters; 
Your star taken oflF, and your chain only serving 
To fetter your ankles selon your deserving. 
Don't think that my charge is some trumpery matter 
Of Court etiquette. It is greater and fatter; 
Fit cause throughout Europe to sj^read conflagration, 
Set king against kaiser, and nation 'gainst nation. 
'Tis a fraud diplomatic — a protocol broken — 
The breach of a treaty both written and si)oken — 
A matter too bad for e'en Thiers's digestion — 
The loss of an empire, the great Eastern question ! 
In vain would you move my ambition or pity — 
In vain would you ofl'er me province or city — 
Neither Bordeaux, nor Xeres, nor eke all Chami^agne, 
Can, make me forgetful of promises vain. 
Such pitiful make-vreights I send to perdition; 
'Twas Turl'cy you promised — at least a partition. 
'Twas TurTccy you promised — you've broken your word. 
'Twas Turley you promised — and where is the bird ?" 

To the above, Seymouk sent the following answer with- 
in an hour after he received it : 



AN EQUIVOCAL COMPLIMENT. 197 

" Of Eastern affairs most infernally sick, 
No wonder I failed to my promise to stick. 
With the subject of Turkey officially Crammed, 
If Turkey I dined on, I swore I'd be d — d. 
But, at least, my good friend, and the thought should bring 

peace. 
If I gave you no TurJcc!/, I gave you no Greece !" 

While Mr. James was residing at Hell Gate, a gentle- 
man of wealth, and of the best social standing in New 
York, came to see me, and requested me to appoint a time 
when I would drive there with him and introduce him 
to the novelist. A day and an hour were decided upon 
sufficiently far ahead to enable me to notify Mr. James 
about it. When the time arrived, we went there in my 
friend's carriage, and the desired introduction took place. 
After the usual words of salutation had passed between 
them, the visitor observed to Mr. James that he was a 
great admirer of his novels, that he believed he had read 
all that were published, and that there was one among 
them which he vastly preferred to all the others." 
" And which is that ?" asked James. " Tlie Last Days 
of Pompeii !" was the answer. " That is Bulwer's, not 
mine," replied the mortified novelist. It was awkward 
enough for all present, and James never forgave that 
man, as few in his place would do. I am in the habit 
of meeting him in the street almost daily, and I never 
do so without thinking of his unpardonably absurd mis- 
take. 

I once heard something which was so good that I 
could not forbear repeating it to the creator of the " soli- 
tary horseman." It ran thus : A lady spending the sum- 
mer in the country was thrown upon the not very exten- 



198 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

sive resources of a village circulating-library for books. 
She was one day pleased to find there, and took home 
with her, a copy of an English edition of one of James's 
novels in two volumes. She read them through with de- 
light, and only after finishing discovered that she had 
been perusing the first volume of one work and the sec- 
ond volume of another! Nothing but our great inti- 
macy could excuse me for telling this to James, but he 
winced under it, Mr. James passed the next summer 
at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where he hired the Ash- 
burner House furnished. I had already spent several 
successive summers in that lovely spot. There was no 
neighborhood in America at that time so distinguished 
for its literary society. The Sedgwicks were the most 
conspicuous family, and their influence had done much 
to attract cultivated people there. Mrs. Susan Sedg- 
wick, widowed daughter-in-law of Theodoke Sedgwick, 
some time Speaker of the House of Representatives of 
the United States, resided in the old manor-house at 
Stockbridge, and Mrs. Heney Sedgwick lived in the 
same village. Mr. and Mrs. Chaeles Sedgwick, and 
Miss Cathaeine Sedgwick, the authoress, resided at Len- 
ox, five miles off. With them Mrs. Pieece Butlee, nee 
Fanny Kemble, was a frequent visitor, until she pur- 
chased a residence for herself in the vicinity. Doctor 
Olivee Wendell Holmes had a summer-seat near Pitts- 
field, in the same county. Heeman Melville, the au- 
thor of " Typee" and " Omoo," occupied a fine old place 
between Pittsfield and Lenox. jN'athaniel Hawthoene 
resided in a little box of a house, which looked like a 
district school-house, near the Lenox Lake. Geoege Wil- 
liam CuETis frequented Lenox, as Daeley, the artist, 



THE SEDQWICKS. I99 

and David Dudley Field did Stockbridge, where Mrs. 
Field owned an old family residence ; Cyrus W. Field 
was a frequent visitor there, and the Rev. Dr. Okville 
Dewey made his home at Sheffield, south of Stockbridge. 
Besides those whom I have named, there were numerous 
other distinguished people who were constantly coming 
and going. There is no more beautiful interior coun- 
ty in America than Berkshire, and there was none oth- 
er in those days where refinement and culture were 
so universal. Every wliere the influence of the Sedg- 
wicKS made itself felt, and affected the tone of society. 
This reminds me of a little story. About this time Mr. 
SiGOUENEY Bakker, SOU of the famous banker Jacob 
Barker, of l^ew York and New Orleans, came to Lenox 
to visit his sister, who had a beautiful estate there. 
Mr. Barker was well known as a young gentleman of 
fashion, and a society man. Some three weeks after 
his arrival, a friend who had just come from New York 
called upon him and found him at home. "Well, 
Barker," he asked, "what do you do with yourself 
here ?" " Oh, nothing," was the listless answer. " "Why, 
don't you shoot ? I understand that there is capital 
woodcock-shooting in the neighborhood." " Oh, no ; I 
never shoot." " And I am told that there is excellent 
trout -fishing in the mountain streams. You fish, of 
course?" "Never did such a thing in my life," Bar- 
ker indolently replied. "But the society here is 
charming, and that is exactly in your line. You surely 
enjoy that?" "I never go out any more." "Why, 
what in the world has happened to you, old fellow?" 
" Well," drawled Sigourney, " I suppose that you won't 
let me off until I confess the whole truth, and here it is : 



200 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

For the first ten days that I was here, I was out all the 
time at evening parties, picnics, expeditions to the ice- 
glen, and all sorts of things. I was charmed for a while; 
but at last, when I was driving home of an evening, it 
came to seem to me that the katydids and the frogs and 
the tree-toads had but one song, and that was ' Sedg- 
wick ! Sedg-wick ! Sedg-wick !' Since then I have kept 
to the house, and the most seductive invitations fail to 
lure me from it." 

Every body there remembers Mrs. Pierce Blttler, 
who was always called by her maiden name of Fanny 
Kemble. She was certainly a lady of great genius, gift- 
ed with many masculine accomplishments. I distinctly 
remember a certain evening party at the Sedgwick Man- 
or-house. When I arrived, I found Mrs. Butlee at the 
piano in the front drawing-room, singing Spanish ballads, 
which she did very sweetly and effectively. After a time 
she ceased singing and entered into conversation with me. 
Her arms, which she called her " deformities," were bare, 
and they, as well as her face, were very much burned by 
the sun. She told me that she had been out all the day 
alone upon the lake, fishing ; that she had had no din- 
ner; that when she returned to the house, she for the 
first time heard of the party for that evening, and that 
she had not had the time to both eat and dress without 
detaining the rest of the family. The result was that she 
had not tasted food since breakfast, and felt very faint 
and exhausted. All this time she was carelessly drum- 
ming the keys of the piano. At length she arose from 
her seat and slowly sauntered into the back drawing-room, 
while I remained standing where I was. After a short 
interval, hearing very loud talking in the other room, I 



FANNY KEMBLE IN PRIVATE. £01 

lounged into it to see what it meant. The rear of the 
house was very near the Housatonic, and it had a bay- 
window on that side. Seated in this window, with her 
back to the river, was Fanny Kemble, and sitting on 
either side of her were the Rev. Dr. Parkek and the Rev. 
Justin Field, both clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church. Thereupon I drew up a chair, and, facing the 
lady, completed i\\ej)artie carree. She was doing the talk- 
ing just then, and her subject was horses, for which ani- 
mals she had a passionate fondness. From horses in gen- 
eral, she soon passed to war or cavalry horses. " By the 
bye," she went on to say, " this reminds me that the last 
time I was in England I met Sir Haery Smith. He told 
me that he was a captain of horse at Waterloo, but that his 
command was not called into action during the day. In 
the afternoon the Duke of Wellington, at the head of his 
staff, rode up to where he was, and called to him, ' Come, 
sir, get your troop in motion — get your troop in motion !' 
Now Sir Harry did not yet know any thing about the 
fortunes of the day ; so, saluting his commander, he hesi- 
tatingly asked, ' Which way, sir V " As she gave the 
Duke's reply, she rose to her feet like a tragedy queen, 
and, with clenched hand, shouted, " Forward, sir, by 
God !" At this her immediate auditors started as if 
electrified ; but she calmly resumed her chair, and went 
on with the conversation as if unconscious that she had 
violated any of the proprieties. She soon fell a-talking 
about the transmigration of souls, Brahminism, and I can 
not recall what besides. When I withdrew from the 
party she was still engaged with some subject of mys- 
tical theology. 

And this reminds me of a little excursion which Dae- 
12 



202 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

LEY, tlie artist, and myself once made together from 
Stockbridge. We started in a buggy to call upon Mel- 
ville, intending to go from there to Dr. Holmes's, then 
to the hotel at Pittstield to dine, and thence home. We 
found Melville, whom I had always known as the most 
silent man of my acquaintance, sitting on the porch in 
front of his door. He took us to a particular spot on his 
place to show us some superb trees. lie told me that he 
spent much time there jpatting them ioj)on the lack. 
When we were about to start for Dr. Holmes's, we invited 
Melville to accompany us, and he accepted. We found 
the poet-physician, to whom I w^as presented for the first 
time, at home, and he took us into a room at the back of 
his house, which overlooked the mountains. For some 
time the talk, in which all tried to participate, dragged, 
and I feared that our visit would only result in boring 
our host, if not ourselves. At length, somehow, the con- 
versation drifted to East India religions and mythologies, 
and soon there arose a discussion between Holmes and 
Melville, which was conducted with the most amazing 
skill and brilliancy on both sides. It lasted for hours, 
and Daeley and I had nothing to do but to listen. I 
never chanced to hear better talking in my life. It was 
so absorbing that we took no note of time, and the Doc- 
tor lost his dinner, as we lost ours. We took tea at Pitts- 
field, instead of dining there, and reached home late in 
the evening. 

But I have very discourteously left Mr. James all this 
time standing in his new house with his boxes unpacked. 
It took him a very short time to convert it into a home, 
and to fall into regular liabits of living there. His nat- 
ure w^as so genial, and liis fund of recollections and an- 



TWIN AUTHORSHIP. 203 

ecdotes so inexhaustible, that he soon became the friend 
of every man, woman, and child who lived in his neigh- 
borhood. He bought property there ; but I fear that, 
notwithstanding his long India-rubber boots and affec- 
tation of rustic attire, he was not a success as a farmer. 
In the mean time he was also industriously pegging 
away at book-making, although to the casual observer 
he appeared to be the least occupied man in the place. 
He never did any literary work after eleven o'clock A.M. 
until evening. He was not accustomed to put his own 
hand to paper, when composing, but always employed an 
amanuensis. At this time he had in his service in that 
capacity the brother of an Irish baronet, who spoke and 
wrote English, French, German, and Italian, and whom I 
had procured for him at the modest stipend of five dol- 
lars a week. When James was dictating, he always kept 
a paper of snuff upon the table on which his secretary 
wrote, and he would stride up and down the room, stop- 
ping every few minutes for a fresh supply of the titil- 
lating powder. He never looked at the manuscript, or 
made any corrections except upon proof-sheets. 

During the first few weeks that he and I were togeth- 
er at Stockbridge, I related to him several detached in- 
cidents in my own experience which I thought he might 
advantageously work up in his fictions. One day he told 
rae that he was determined that we should write a novel 
together. The idea appeared to me an absurd one, and 
I discouraged it in every possible way, among other 
things telling him that I was sure that either of us could 
better write a book alone than we could write one to- 
gether. But he would not be denied, and moreover 
he insisted that we should set to work at once. I con- 



204 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

tinned to object, but saying I "would ne'er consent — 
consented." 

It was a very few evenings after this conversation that 
we met at his house to construct our plot. After two 
hours' consideration, we completed it; but I may as well 
mention that, before we reached the middle of the book, 
we had deviated so far from it that we had to recast it. 
Our daily habit while engaged upon this work was as 
follows: At seven o'clock every evening we would re- 
tire into his library, and each read to the other what he 
had written on that day. Some filing and dovetailing 
was generally necessary to make the parts fit. Then we 
would determine what each was to do the next day — up 
to what point he was to carry the story. Now the hero 
was mine, and the heroine was Mr. James's, and we were 
constantly and inevitably, in the progress of the tale, 
each distorting the ideal conception of the other. But 
we got over this the best way we could. After our 
evening's consultation, we retii'ed to the dining-room, 
and usually supped upon a finnie haddocic, prepared in 
national style by a Scotch cook. Mr. James threw all 
his heart, which was as fresh as that of a boy, into a 
book. While he was writing a story, it was a reality to 
him. I remember tliat in our joint work, the wife at 
one time ran away from her husband, for we married 
our hero and heroine in the middle of the book, and left 
them, like young bears, to find all their troubles after- 
ward. She left a letter behind her, explaining her rea- 
sons for going. It fell to Mr. James's lot to write that 
letter, and when he read it to me his voice was choked, 
and he was overcome by emotion. James's style was so 
well known to the public, and mine not at all, that I 



HAWTHOMNE'S SHYNESS. 205 

naturally endeavored to assimilate mine to his, and with 
good success, as the sequel proved. In five weeks after 
the book was commenced it was finished, and it was 
published under the title of " Adrian ; or, The Clouds of 
the Mind." It was very kindly received by the critics, 
and attracted attention by the singularity of its dual 
authorship. I remember that my esteemed fi-iend, Mr. 
EiCHAKD Geant White, reviewed it at length in the N'ew 
Yorh CovjTier and Enquirer. lie undertook to assign 
particular passages to each of us, and in almost every 
instance he was mistaken. There was an old house de- 
scribed in the first chapter. Mr. White said that if I 
had written that, I had better undertake to write " Re- 
jected Addresses." Now, every word of it M'as mine. 
I had in my mind the old " Salstonstall " house, near 
New Haven. 

One day James and I started to call upon Hawthgene. 
As we approached his dwelling, we saw him in a vege- 
table garden at the side of it. As soon as he noticed 
our approacli, he concealed himself, like a frightened 
school-boy, behind the house, and when we asked for 
him at the door, we w^ere told that he was not at home. 
Tradition related that nobody had succeeded in inter- 
viewing him since he had first settled at Lenox. 

Some time in the year 1852 Mr. Jaisies was appointed 
Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at Norfolk, Virginia, and 
later at Richmond, in the same state. In 1858 he was 
made British Consul- General at Yenice, and left this 
country forever. I was with him during the last even- 
ing that he spent in America, at the Union Place Hotel, 
in New York. Washington Ieving, between wdiom and 
himself there existed a sincere friendship:), was also with 



206 IfEMOEIES OF IfANT MEN. 

US. Jaivies was telling us about all the kindness which 
he had received in Virginia. " They're a warm-hearted 
people — they're a warm-hearted people !" he said, while 
tears came into his eyes. The next morning I accom- 
panied him to the steamer, and took my final leave of 
him. He died in Venice, after a comparatively short 
residence there. 

If he was sometimes a tedious writer, he was always 
the best story-teller that I ever listened to. lie had 
known almost every body in his own country, and he 
never forgot any thing. The literary anecdotes alone 
which I have heard him relate would sufiice to fill an 
ordinary volume. He was a big-hearted man, too — 
tender, merciful, and full of religious sentiment ; a good 
husband, a devoted father, and a fast friend. If I dwell 
longer upon him than upon some others who occupy a 
higher niche in the temple of fame, it is because I knew 
him so well, and there always existed so affectionate a 
regard between us. 

I have already mentioned that in consequence of their 
alleged connivance in the enlistment of soldiers for the 
British Army upon American soil during the Crimean 
War, the Washington Government not only dismissed 
her Majesty's Minister at that capital, but also withdrew 
their exequaturs from her Consuls at New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Cincinnati. When I was in England in the 
year 1856, I made some efforts to induce Mr. Jaivies's 
friends to secure for him the vacant Consulship at New 
York. But his own political party was not tlien in pow- 
er, and whatever attempt, if any, was made by them, 
failed of success. Lokd Derby's adherents did not like 
to ask favors of Lord Palmeeston's administration. 



CONSUL-MAKING. 207 

Among others, I wrote in his behalf to the Dukes of 
Northumberland and "Wellington and the Marquis of 
Dalhousie, \v]io had just returned home from the Gov- 
ernor-Generalship of India. I received the following 
replies to my letters : 

" NoKTHUMBERLAi^D HoiJSE, June 20, 1856. 

" Sir, — I entirely agree with you in tlie expressions contained in 
your letter of tlie 18tli inst. in favor of Mr. James. I have long 
had the pleasure of his acquaintance, and, therefore, have long es- 
teemed and respected him. But I can not consent to take a part 
in the transaction you propose, as it would not produce the effect 
you anticipate. Yours faithfully, NoRTnuMBERLAND. 

" Maunsell B. Field, Esq." 

" London, June 19, 1856. 

" Sir, — I am much obliged to you for your letter. 

" A few days since I had an opportunity of talking to Lord 
Clarendon respecting Mr. James, and I have hopes that his posi- 
tion may be improved. I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient, 
humble servant, Wellington. 

" M. B. Field, Esq." 

" Edinburgh, June 30, 1856. 

" Sm, — Your letter of the 18th inst. did not reach me until very 
lately, in consequence of my having left London before it was de- 
livered at my address there. 

" I can not pretend to the possession of any influence with her 
Majesty's Ministers; and I am, of course, ignorant of the course 
they intend to pursue with regard to the Consuls from whom the 
exequatur has been withdrawn. 

" But you judge rightly in believing that I should be glad to 
serve Mr. James if I could ; and if a proper opportunity for doing 
so should present itself, I will not let it jDass. I have the honor to 
be, sir, your obedient servant, DALnousiE. 

" M. B. Field, Esq." 

I have already devoted so much space to Mr. James 
that it would be hardly fair to detain the reader to list- 



208 2fEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

en to many of the anecdotes which I heard from him. 
He had been personally acquainted with Scott, Camp- 
bell, SoLTHEY, WoEDswoETH, De Qdincey, Byeon, and 
all the brilliant galaxy of poets and prose writers which 
illuminated the earlier part of the present century. He 
told me that the first time he met the author of the 
"Pleasures of Hope" he was taken to his residence, which 
was at Camden Town, or one of the other suburbs of 
London. It- was a poor place ; and he found the great 
lyric poet in a green-baize jacket, smokiug a clay pipe ! 
Campbell sometimes showed at Longman's literary din- 
ners. Upon these occasions a screen was placed behind 
liis chair, and behind that screen stood a table with a de- 
canter of spirits upon it. To the latter he made such 
frequent application that he was usually under the din- 
ner-table before the fish was removed. 

James intimately knew Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd." 
They were one clay dining together at a table Avhere 
Hogg happened to be seated next to a daughter of Sik 
Wn^LiAM Deysdale. She was a charming young lady 
— unaffected, affable, and clever. To some remark which 
he made, she replied, " You're a funny man, Mr. Hogg ;" 
to which he instantly rejoined, "And ye're a nice las- 
sie, Miss Deysdale. Xearly all girls are like a bundle 
of pens cut by the same machine — ye're not of the 
bundle." Jajvies once arranged a party for an excursion 
to Lake St. Mary, and it was proposed to stop at Hogg's 
house on the way, and take him up. Before they reach- 
ed it, however, they saw a man fishing in the Yarrow, 
not very far from the high-road. The fisherman, as soon 
as he noticed a carriageful of people, whose attention 
was apparently attracted to himself, gathered up his rod. 



HOGG AXD BYROK 209 

and started to run in an opposite direction as fast as liis 
legs conld carry liim. James descended from the car- 
riage, and shouted after him at the top of his voice. But 
it was of no use — the fugitive never stopped until he 
reached an elevated spot of ground, when he turned 
around to watch the movements of the intruders. Rec- 
ognizing James, he laughingly returned his greeting, and, 
approaching him, said — I translate his Scotch dialect 
into the vernacular — " Why, James, my boy, how are you ? 
I took you for some of those rascally tourists who come 
down upon me in swarms, and eat me out of house and 
home." His fears removed, he accompanied the party 
to the lake, and they had a merry day of it. 

Hogg's egotism was veiy amusing. Witness the fol- 
io wino; extract from his " Familiar Anecdotes of Sir Wal- 
ter Scott :" 

"One of Sir Walter's representatives has taken it upon 
him to assert that Sir Walter held me in the lowest con- 
tempt ! He never was further wrong in his life ; but 
Sir Walter would have been still further wrong if he 
liad done so. Of that, posterity will judge." 

James was a mere youth at the time of his acquaint- 
ance with Byron. The latter used to call him "little 
devil," and at one time proposed taking him abroad with 
liim. He had frequent opportunities of noticing By- 
eon's lameness ; and upon a certain occasion, when they 
happened to meet at a fashionable hatter's on the Strand, 
liis attention was particularly attracted to it. When he 
came in, the poet was seated before a table with his feet 
crossed under it. The boy (for boy he was) being some- 
what piqued because Byron had not interrupted the con- 
versation in which he was engaged, to be civil to him, 



210 MEMORIES OP MANY MEK 

withdrew to the other side of the shop. Standing there, 
leaning against a counter, he satisfied his own mind that 
the lame foot was the left one. In this statement he 
disagreed with Mooke. The biographer says in a note : 
" In speaking of this lameness at the commencement of 
my work, I forbore, both from my own doubts upon the 
subject, and the great variance I found in the recollec- 
tions of others, from stating in which of his feet the 
lameness existed. It will, indeed, with difficulty be be- 
lieved what uncertainty I found upon this point, even 
among those most intimate with him. Mr. Hunt, in his 
book, states it to have been the left foot that was de- 
formed; and this, though contrary to my own impression, 
and, as it appears, also to the fact, was the opinion I 
found also of others who had been much in the habit of 
living with him. On applying to his early friends at 
Southwell, and to the shoemaker of that town who work- 
ed for him, so little were they prepared to answer with 
any certainty on the subject, that it was only by recol- 
lecting that the lame foot ' was the oif one in going up 
the street,' they at last came to the conclusion that his 
right limb was the one affected ; and Mr. Jackson, his 
preceptor in pugilism, was, in like manner, obliged to 
call to mind whether his noble pupil was a right or left 
hand hitter before he could arrive at the same decision." 
And yet, after all, I am inclined to think that James was 
right and Moore mistaken. 

Many years ago I met at the " Sailor's Snug Harbor," 
near Port Richmond, Staten Island, a venerable old pen- 
sioner named William Giedham. He was the son of an 
English sailing-master who fell at Trafalgar, and had 
himself seen many years' service in the British Navy. In 



BYRON'S PERSONAL TRAITS. 211 

the year 1810 he was a seaman attached to the fi-igate 
Salsette, Captain Bathukst, on board of which Loeu 
Bykon embarked at Smyrna on the 11th of April in 
that year, and in which he remained as a guest, except 
when on shore at Constantinople, until he was landed at 
the Island of Zea, toward the end of the succeeding 
July. GiKDnAM, being all this time cockswain of the 
Captain's gig, and always accompanying Lord Bykon in 
his frequent excursions upon the water, had abundant op- 
portunities of observing the peculiarities of the noble poet. 

When LoED Byeon and Lieutenant Ekenhead per- 
formed the feat of swimming from Sestos to Abydos, 
GiEDHAM steered the boat that folloM^ed them. Ac- 
cording to his statement, three or four times before they 
reached their destination, Byeon swam up to the boat, 
and, holding on to the side for a minute or two, took 
some refreshment to strengthen him. Ekenhead, he 
asserted, was much the better swimmer of the two ; that 
is, he swam faster and more gracefully. When they 
reached the opposite shore, neither of them appeared to 
be exhausted. 

It was Byeon's habit while at Constantinople to swim 
early every morning in the Bosphorus. Upon these oc- 
casions GiEDHAM represented himself to have been his 
only companion. lie rowed him out daily, he said, 
to a particular spot at six o'clock. His Lordship, who al- 
ways provided himself with two eggs and a few biscuits, 
would, after undressing, toss one of the eggs into the air 
with all his strength. Then, noticing where it struck 
the water, he would swim after it. This proceeding he 
would repeat with the other egg, and afterward dress 
himself, eat his biscuits, and return to town. 



212 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

I questioned GiEDnAM about Bteon's lameness. He 
said that he had a very distinct remembrance of it. The 
heel of one of the poet's boots was from three eighths to 
one half of an inch higher than the other, and the toes of 
tlie foot to which it belonged he turned in when walk- 
ing. This inequality of gait was, however, so slight that 
a person might be some time in his company without 
perceiving it. Gikdiiam was sure that the left foot was 
tlie imperfect one. He noticed that when he was in the 
water he was almost powerless with the left leg. His at- 
tention was so frequently called to this circumstance, 
that he was certain that he could not be mistaken in his 
recollection of it. 

At this period of his life Bykon appeared much older 
than he really was. He was born on the 22d of January, 
1788, and consequently, in May, 1810, was a little more 
than two-and-twenty. And yet to the eyes of my in- 
formant he then looked at least thirt}^ He was already 
quite corpulent. His shoulders were broad and his waist 
slender. When undressed, however, his limbs appeared 
less muscular than one would expect to find them. 

His manners were affable, communicative, and joyous. 
He was a great favorite with the sailors, both on account 
of his liberality and the frankness of his intercourse with 
them. HoBHOusE, who was of the party, and whose bear- 
ing was more reserved and aristocratic, was less liked. 

Byeon's dress upon ordinary occasions was exceeding- 
ly plain and unpretending. He had an English love for 
soap and water, and was always scrupulously neat about 
his person. When on board the frigate, he spent most of 
his mornings in the Captain's cabin, reading and writing. 

Upon the plain of Troy, Giedham remained three days 



BYBON'S PERSONAL TRAITS. 213 

with the poet. On their return to the water's edge, there 
was some delay about the boat. Loed Byron directed 
that his writing-desk be brought to him, which he placed 
upon his knees, and before they were ready to embark he 
had " covered a sheet of paper with verses." 

Upon another occasion, Giedhaisi was sent with a boat 
from Scutari, where Lokd Byron happened to be with 
Captain Bathuest, to get some casks of wine. Upon its 
return, the boat was upset, and the casks floated off. By- 
eon's anxiety was all for the man, the Captain's for the 
wine — probably because he knew that the man was in 
no danger. 

When Byron was landed at the Island of Zea, he went 
ashore with a kid under each arm. 

It is proper for me to add that, having myself visited 
that part of the world, and being tolerably familiar with 
its topography, I was able to confirm in my own mind 
the accuracy of Giedham's descriptions. His recollec- 
tions of the poet were given with but few leading ques- 
tions from me, and there was an air of truth about him 
which satisfied me that he was drawing upon his memory, 
and not " spinning a yarn." I asked him, for my ow^n in- 
. formation, the meaning of the word " Salsette," the name 
of Captain Bathurst's frigate. He replied that it is the 
name of an island near Bombay — that he was himself at 
Bombay w^ith the frigate, and that he sailed in her in all 
ten years. In the year 1815, disgusted with the small- 
ness of a pension which his sisters were receiving from 
the Government, he left the service. Since then he had 
been employed in merchant vessels belonging principally 
to Philadelphia and New York, until laid upon the shelf 
by age. AVhen I saw him he was about seventy years 
old, and a fine specimen of an intelligent, veteran tar. 



214 3IE3I0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

There are many engraved portraits of Lord Byron, 
but it is said that none of them are very like him. Mr. 
James assured me that the face of the Macedonian mon- 
arch in Paul Veronese's celebrated picture of "Alex- 
ander in the Tent of Darius," in Venice, is the exact im- 
age of his Lordship, Standing before it one day with a 
lady, he mentioned the extraordinary likeness to her, 
when the cicerone who accompanied them said, "Ah, sir ! 
I see that you knew my old master well. Many a time 
since his death have I stood and gazed upon that face, 
which recalled his own so vividly !" 

That picture has a curious history, and I may well 
deviate here a moment to relate it. The artist was in- 
vited by a hospitable family to spend some time with 
them at their villa upon the banks of the Brenta. While 
in the house, his habits were very peculiar. He remained 
in his room the greater part of the time, and refused to 
allow any one to enter it upon any pretext. The maid 
was not even permitted to make his bed, and every 
morning she found the sweepings of the room at the 
door, whence she was at liberty to remove them. One 
day the painter suddenly disappeared. The door of the 
room was found open. The sheets were gone from the 
bed. The frightened servant reported to the master that 
they had been stolen. A search was instituted. In one 
corner of the room was found a large roll. Upon open- 
ing it, it proved to be a magnificent picture — the famous 
" Alexander in the Tent of Darius." Upon close inspec- 
tion it was discovered that it was painted upon the sheets 
of the bed ! The artist had left it as a present to the 
family, and had taken this curious method to show his 
gratitude for their kindness. 



CHAPTER IV. 

I HAD a less intimate acquaintance with Thackekay 
when in this country than with James, but I also 
knew the former very well. We used constantly to meet 
on Saturday evenings at the Century Club, of New York, 
which then occupied a modest house on Clinton Place. 
Mr. Thackeray very much enjoyed the company and the 
entertainment that he always found there, and sometimes 
protracted his visits late into the night. He usually un- 
bent his bow to a very slack cord, and his propensity to 
ironical teasing he seldom laid aside. I happened to be 
there one evening after all had left except Thackeeay, 
Geoege William Curtis, and Leutze, the painter. Thack- 
eray and Curtis fell to talking about a most respectable 
young lady whom we all knew. Thackeray was unlim- 
ited in his expressions of admiration for her, in some of 
which Mr. Curtis, in the most gentleman-like manner, 
declined to concur. 

We were all surprised, and, I confess, somewhat 
shocked to hear Thackeray close the discussion by say- 
ing, "Well, Curtis, you may say what you please about 
her, but she is a devilish good fellow !" He then took 
out his watch, said that it was late, and that he must go 
home. " To-morrow," he said, " I have to accompany a 
lady to church. In the afternoon I shall go to Philadel- 
phia. When I arrive there, I mean to go directly to the 
Club, and forthwith begin to intoxicate myself." Of 



216 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

course, this was mere badinage, but it was Thackeray 
all over. 

Jenny Lind, the world-renowned singer, arrived at 
New York on a Sunday, in the month of September, in 
the year 1850. I had hardly reached my office on Mon- 
day morning before a messenger came there from her, 
bringing a letter of introduction in her favor, I think 
from the Bakings, of London, to my law-partner, Mr. 
John Jay, with the request that he would immediately 
call upon her at the Irving House, where she was then 
stopping. Mr. Jay happened to have recently gone 
abroad, and I sent Miss Lind word to that effect. The 
messenger soon returned with the request that I would 
come in his stead. As soon as I could dispose of some 
urgent business, I started for the hotel, which was in the 
building at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street, 
now occupied by Delmonico. Upon my arrival, I men- 
tioned whom I desired to see, and was at once accost- 
ed by a stranger, who introduced himself to me as Mr. 
Baknum. He offered to accompany me to Miss Lind's 
drawing-room, and I followed him up stairs. On the 
way, he turned to me and said, " I am going to intro- 
duce you to an angel, sir — to an angel !" AVe entered 
the drawing-room, but it was vacant, and Mr. Barnum 
went to call the distinguished artist. He presently re- 
turned, saying that she would come directly, and while 
we were waiting he poured into my ear ceaseless praises 
of her. After a short delay, the object of his admiration 
entered the room, and Mr. Barnum presented me to her. 
She wore a summer dress, cut low in the neck and with 
short sleeves, and she looked to ine wonderfully substan- 
tial for an angel. "We soon got to business. It apj)eared 



JENNY LIND. 



217 



that she had come to America without any formal con- 
tract with Mr. Baknum. There was nothing between 
tliem but a very vague memorandum which had been 
executed at Bremen, I believe, by herself and an agent 
of the great showman on his behalf. She desired me to 
prepare a proper agreement, and we three sat down to- 
gether and settled its terms. 

When, the next day, I had completed it, and had du- 
plicate copies made of it, I returned to the hotel and 
submitted it to my client and to Mr. Baknum, and it ap- 
peared to be perfectly satisfactory to both of them. 
Thereupon the two copies were duly signed, sealed, wit- 
nessed, and exchanged. 

A day or two afterward the first rehearsal took place 
at Castle Garden, and I attended it. Never before and 
never since has New York witnessed such a furor as 
the advent of Jenny Lind produced. Mr. Baenum, 
with unexampled skill and tact, fanned the public ex- 
citement, which he liad largely created, to fever heat. 
Upon the occasion of this rehearsal, tlie entire Battery 
was covered with one dense mass of humanity. When 
the performance was over. Miss Lind took my arm to re- 
turn to Iier carriage, which she had left standing oppo- 
site the Bowling Green. Immediately after we made 
our exit from the Garden, the crowd pressed upon us so 
wildly that the police had difficulty in forcing a passage 
for us. Some endeavored to thrust petitions for charity 
into her hand, and the only object of others was to grat- 
ify their curiosity by gazing into her face. The popu- 
lace made up their minds that I must be Baenum, and I 
was repeatedly addressed by that name. It was with no 
small difficulty, and after a great deal of embarrassment 

K 



218 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

to me, that we finally readied tlie carriage and drove 
away. 

After a time Miss Lind became dissatisfied with her 
contract, and I was sent for to revise it. Mr. Baknum 
made the required concessions. I prepared a substitute, 
and this also was duly executed. 

Before the first concert came off, it was announced in 
the newspapers that Miss Lind intended to inaugurate 
her career in America by presenting her share of the 
proceeds to public charities in the city of New York. I 
believe that the suggestion came from Mr. Barnum, and 
it was a master-stroke of policy. The day after that con- 
cert I again saw Miss Lind, and received from her about 
eleven thousand dollars for distribution. I asked her to 
what institutions I was to present it, and she told me to 
select them myself. Accordingly I consulted with two 
or three gentlemen, and made out a list which I submit- 
ted to her for her approbation. She approved it, with- 
out hardly reading it, and I started upon my mission of 
mercy. Before I had got through it, I almost regret- 
ted that I had consented to be her almoner. Scarcely 
any body — there were a few praiseworthy exceptions — 
was satisfied. At almost every establishment at which I 
called, they tried to persuade me that a larger allotment 
should have been made to their particular institution, 
and that its needs and deservings were so much greater 
than those of such a sister one. Of course, we had been 
strictly impartial. We had no motive whatever to be 
otherwise. 

Kow the best of it is that, as I have since had reason 
to believe, the receipts of that first concert fell far short 
of Mr. Bajbntjm's expectations, and that the public might 



JENNY LIND. 219 

not suspect the fact, lie himself furnished a large portion 
of the money which figured as Miss Lind's share. 

Again and again Miss Lind desired changes made in 
the contract to her own advantage, and every time Mr. 
Baenum yielded. Whatever his motive, he was most 
obliging and complaisant, and although I have never 
since met him, I have always esteemed him for the good- 
nature and liberality which he exhibited at this time in 
his business relations with Miss Lind. I believe that she 
received every farthing that belonged to her, and that he 
treated her with the most scrupulous honor. Of what 
occurred afterward, I have not so much personal knowl- 
edge. Mr. Jay returned from Europe, and became the 
more immediate adviser of our fair client. In June, 
1851, after singing at ninety-five concerts under Mr. Bae- 
num's management, the contract between them, which 
she had the privilege to extend to one hundred and fif- 
ty, was rescinded by mutual agreement, but at her re- 
quest. The performances which she afterward gave in 
the States were on her own account. 

I believe that the immediate cause of the ruj^ture was 
that Baenum desired her to sing in a building in Phila- 
delphia which she denominated a circus. I heard that 
she told him that she was not a horse, and, therefore, 
would not appear there. 

Miss Lind soon removed from the Irving House to the 
New York Hotel, and it Mas there that I saw her most 
frequently. The barytone of the troupe which accom- 
panied her, who was in the same house, was madly in 
love with her, and he used to lie in bed all day, weeping 
and howling over his unrequited affection. The way in 
which she was hounded for charity all the time was dis- 



220 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

graceful to tlie country. Besides receiving scores of let- 
ters, she was daily besieged by male and female beggars, 
who obtained access to her upon every pretext, and who 
tormented her for donations for themselves or others. 
The impudence of some of these j^eople was almost incred- 
ible. I once saw her play the tragedy queen to perfection 
in her own drawing-room. One of her countrymen was 
an importunate petitioner for assistance, and not receiv- 
ing at iirst a favorable reply, became insolent. The 
manner in which she ordered him from her presence 
would have done credit to Kachel or Ristori. I am 
ashamed to be compelled to say that many American 
ladies urged their pleas in behalf of objects, some of 
them undoubtedly meritorious, with an importunity which 
overstepped the bounds of propriety. 

Miss LiND was a calm, sensible, conscientious woman 
of high principles, rather calculating than emotional. 
She detested humbug — a word which was constantly in 
her mouth. I was with her when a telegram was shown 
to her, mentioning the enormous sum that was paid in 
Boston for a choice of seats at her first concert. " What 
a fool !" she exclaimed, referring to the purchaser. 

She had an abhorrence for negroes, which she could 
not overcome. " They are so ugly," she used to say. 



CHAPTER V. 

T" FIRST became acquainted witli General Winfield 
-*- Scott in the spring of the year 1853, after his defeat 
for the Presidency by Feanklin Pierce. He was un- 
doubtedly very much chagrined that one of liis least dis- 
tinguished lieutenants in Mexico had been preferred by 
the American people to himself for the highest position 
within their gift ; but he made no unseemly exhibition 
of his feelings. He was then living in his house in 
Twelfth Street, in ISTew York ; and I particularly remem- 
ber one evening which I spent there, when one of the few 
persons in the world who could venture to take a liberty 
with him, galled him to the quick by lavish praises of 
Feanklin Pieece. This person had just returned from 
Washington, and spoke of the President as the most pol- 
ished gentleman in America, and as in all respects fitted 
for his exalted position. One could not help feeling 
that this was done with the intent to annoy the old sol- 
dier. But he gave no sign of impatience or vexation. 

One afternoon, in the summer of the year 1863, I 
started for West Point by the steam-boat Mary Poivell. 
A few minutes after myself. General Scott came on 
board, accompanied by his friend, Mr. Vail, of the Bank 
of Commerce, who escorted him to the boat. The Gen- 
eral took a seat in the cabin, and I took one at his side, 
and we did not remove from them during the entire 
passage. I had much agreeable talk with him. He told 



222 MEMORIES OF MANY MEJST. 

me that after he was taken prisoner at the battle of 
Queenstown Heights, in October, 1812, orders came in the 
evening to remove him to an interior place, distant some 
miles from the frontier. He was very indignant at what 
he considered an unnecessary and ungenerous proceed- 
ing. When he reached the end of his journey, he was 
informed that he was brought there only that he might 
participate in a ball which was about to take place. But 
here a difficulty arose. He had not a proper suit of 
clothes with him, and, as he was six feet four inches 
high, he could not reasonably expect to supply the defi- 
ciency by borrowing. But it so happened that Sik John 
Hakvey, the Adjutant-General of the British Army, who 
was present, was precisely the same stature as himself, 
and from him he borrowed all that he needed for the 
occasion. He and Sir John grew to be fast friends. Sib 
John subsequently became Lieutenant-Governor of New 
Brunswick, and, later. Governor of Nova Scotia. Dur- 
ing the boundary troubles between Maine and New 
Brunswick in the year 1839, when a recourse to arms 
seemed imminent on both sides, our Government sent 
Geneeal Scott to that province to co-operate with Sm 
John in keeping the peace, and allaying the disturbed 
feeling which existed. Their joint efforts were success- 
ful, and the matter was finally adjusted by the Ashbur- 
ton Treaty concluded at Washington in the year 1842. 

He told me that during the last war with Great Brit- 
ain, before an action began between the two armies, it 
was customary for the respective commanders to ride 
forward, accompanied by their staffs, and formally salute 
each other. Each then returned to his own lines, and 
the battle opened. 



IIcCLELLAN, LEE, AND OEANT. 223 

General Scott expressed to me his great gratification 
that in the War of tlie Rebellion more than fifty per 
cent, of the ofiicers of the regular army who were born 
in Virginia had remained loyal to the flag. The per- 
centage of excess was not large, only four or five, I think 
he said. lie had himself been at pains to make a care- 
ful estimate, and he was certain of its correctness. 

I asked him his opinion of McClellan, Lee, and 
Geant. He told me that he had never been so disap- 
pointed in any one as he had been in Geokge B. McClel- 
lan. Of Lee he remarked, in somewhat tm-gid language, 
that " EoBEET E. Lee had never but once in his life been 
guilty of an act unworthy a Christian, a soldier, and a 
gentleman !" lie said that he only remembered Geant 
as a young lieutenant of average merit in Mexico. He 
little foresaw the eminence which that " young lieuten- 
ant" was to attain in both military and civil life ! He 
has in his career presented the antithesis of what 
"Washington Irving once said to my friend Charles As- 
TOR Bristed. Bristed was sjjeaking to him of some- 
body as a "promising young man." "Ah ! Charles," an- 
swered Irving, " most of us are promissory notes, only 
too liable to be protested at maturity !" Geant did not 
promise much in his youth, but his performances at ma- 
turity have excelled those of a generation of " promising 
young men." • 

I nsed very often to see the poet Fitz-Geeene Hal- 
LECK, but had not a personal acquaintance with him. 
He was stiff, angular, and clean-shaved; wore a high, 
standing shirt-collar, and in the finest weather carried a 
green cotton umbrella under his arm. Lie was for many 
years book-keeper to the late John Jacob Astoe. He 



224 3IEM0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

used to tell tliat gentleman that if lie only Lad an inde- 
pendent income of two hundred dollars a year he could 
live contented. Mr. Astok, by his will, left to his old 
book-keeper just what he had professed would satisfy 
him. But his son, William B. Astoe, increased the an- 
nuity to an amount which enabled the aged poet to live 
comfortably in his native Connecticut until his death. 

Edgar A. Poe I remember seeing on a single occa- 
sion. He announced a lecture to be delivered at the 
Society Library building on Broadway, under the title of 
the " Universe." It was a stormy night, and there w^ere 
not more than sixty persons present in the lecture-room. 
I have seen no portrait of Poe that does justice to his 
pale, delicate, intellectual face and magnificent eyes. 
His lecture w^as a rhapsody of the most intense brill- 
iancy. He appeared inspired, and his inspiration affect- 
ed the scant audience almost painfully. He wore his 
coat tightly buttoned across his slender chest ; his eyes 
seemed to glow like those of his own raven, and he kept 
us entranced for two hours and a half. The late Mr. 
Putnam, the publisher, told me that the next day the 
wayward, luckless poet presented himself to him with 
the manuscript of the "Universe." He told Putnam 
that in it he solved the whole problem of life ; that it 
would immortalize its publisher as well as its author ; 
and, what was of less consequence, that it would biing to 
him the fortune which he had so long and so vainly been 
seeking. Mr. Putnam, while an admirer of genius, was 
also a cool, calculating man of business. As such, he 
could not see the matter in exactly the same light as the 
poet did, and the only result of the interview was that 
he lent Poe a shilling to take him home to Fordham, 



FOE, WILLIS, AND J. Q. ADA3IS. 225 

where he then resided. After poor Foe's death, the late 
RuFus W. Griswold, not altogether immaculate himself, 
treated his memory with undue severity. I had a cor- 
respondence ujjon the subject with his fellow-poet and 
old-time friend, N. P. Willis, who earnestly deprecated 
Geiswold's harshness, I knew Mr. Willis very well in- 
deed, and have passed many delightful hours at his 
house, while he resided in New York. He had commit- 
ted many errors in his life — as who has not ? But, un- 
like some, age purified him. I recollect meeting him 
one day in Broadway, when his salutation to me was, "I 
am sixty years old to-day !" I first became acquainted 
with him in New Haven, when I was a mere boy, and 
he was at the zenith of his fame. He graduated at Yale 
College in the year 1827. He was always an immense 
dandy, and there was a college tradition that while there 
he dressed in white broadcloth, which he had imported 
expressly for himself from England. 

Ex -President John Quincy Adams I saw for the 
only time during the winter which preceded his death. 
The venerable statesman came to New York, on his way 
to Washington, to take his seat in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives. On the evening of his arrival, the New York 
Historical Society, of which I was then one of the Secre- 
taries, held its monthly meeting, and 1 was sent with one 
other member to Mr. Adams's hotel to invite him to at- 
tend it. He consented to do so, and on our way up town 
he asked me about its prominent members. Among oth- 
ers, I spoke in strong terms of Mr. George Gibes, dwell- 
ing particularly upon the fact that he was a grandson of 
Olivee Wolcott. I entirely forgot the quarrel that had 
occurred, and tlie bitter enmity which had grown out of 

K 2 



226 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

it, between John Adams and Mr. Wolcott. A descent 
from one whom liis father had so dishked could hardly 
be a recommendation to the son. The even more ven- 
erable Albert Gallatin was the President of the Society 
at that time, and the meeting between these two old 
public servants was interesting and affecting to those of 
younger generations who stood aronnd them. 

Mr. Chaeles Fkancis Adams, himself an elderly man 
now, looks wonderfully like his father, and his intellectual 
and moral similarity to him are equally remarkable. In- 
telligent, learned, stubborn, and brave, tenacious in all 
things and compromisers in none, they stand out as the 
most distinguished representatives of the most remarka- 
ble family which this country has yet produced. Some 
two years ago Mr. Chaeles Feancis Adams read a very 
able paper before the same Historical Society upon the 
American doctrine of neutralit}^ He took occasion to 
treat the memory of ex-Peesident Moneoe with great 
severity, especially denouncing him for his " Yiew of the 
Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign Affairs of the 
United States," commonly called the " Monroe Letter." 
Mr. Moneoe was appointed in 1794 by Peesident Wash- 
ington Minister to France, to succeed Gouveeneue Moe- 
Eis. His first act upon his arrival in Paris was to fra- 
ternize with the President of the National Assembly by 
publicly presenting him with a United States flag, and 
receiving in turn from him one of tlie French Republic. 
His subsequent conduct was such as to seriously interfere 
with the successful negotiation of a treaty in England by 
Mr. Jay. For this violation of the neutral policy of our 
Government, Geneeal Washington recalled him in Au- 
gust, 1796. Upon his arrival at Norfolk, on his return, 



THE ADAMSES AND TEE MUNROES. 227 

lie received a public ovation. Stung by the unmerited 
disgrace, as lie considered it, which had been inflicted 
upon him, he very soon afterward wrote the paper re- 
ferred to, denouncing the President, and sent it to Phil- 
adelphia to be printed. Soon repenting his action, he 
wrote to the printer countermanding the order. Un- 
fortunately, one hundred copies had already got out ; and 
these he made every effort to buy up and suppress. A 
reconciliation took place between himself and Wasuing- 
TON, and they continued on friendly terms ever after- 
ward. These last -mentioned facts I learned from 
Colonel James Monroe, a nephew of the ex-President, 
in early life an officer upon General Scott's staff, and 
afterward a member of Congress from the city of New 
York. I mentioned them to Mr. Adams, who had never 
before heard of the attempt to suppress the "Monroe 
Letter" which was made by its author. It is supposed 
that there are very few copies of this letter in existence, 
and Mr. Adams informed me that he had two of them in 
his own library. Colonel Moneoe was a Virginia gen- 
tleman of the old school. He told me that he had been a 
" friend " in sixteen affairs of honor, and had in every in- 
stance arranged a satisfactory settlement without a fight. 
He was second to Mr. Cutting, of New York, in his quar- 
rel with Mr. Beeckeneidge, of Kentucky. This was a 
very difficult case to settle, but settled it was. He never 
went out but once himself, and then when very young. 
Although in the army, he served in some capacity in one 
of our frigates during the Algerine War. He quarreled 
upon some unimportant matter with a naval officer, and 
early one morning they took the field under the walls of 
a convent on the coast of Spain. After preliminaries 



228 ME2I0RIES OF 3IANY 3IEN. 

were arranged, his adversary advanced to him and said, 
" Lieutenant Monkoe, I have been in the wrong ; I beg 
your pardon." " My dear fellow," answered Monkoe, 
" if you had not been quite so quick, I should have an- 
ticipated you, and said exactly what you have said." He 
always declined to mention the name of his antagonist. 



CHAPTER VL 

TN the year 1861, Peince Napoleon (Jerome), accom- 
-■- panied by his wife, the Princess Clotilde, daughter 
of Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, and a numerous suite, 
arrived in a steam yacht at the port of New York. Be- 
fore landing, he invited me to dine with him on board 
his yacht, and I accepted the invitation. I found the 
Prince veiy much as he was, in appearance at least, when 
I had last seen him in Paris. There was a good deal of 
conversation at dinner about the Lake Superior copper 
mines — a subject upon which the Prince was minutely 
informed, and about which I knew little or nothing. lie 
had numerous nuggets, or specimens, of this ore upon a 
table in his cabin, and to these he constantly referred for 
purposes of illustration. The dinner was not a very 
good one. I remember particularly that the bread was 
detestable. 

A day or two afterward he came ashore with his im- 
mediate party, and took possession of the rooms at the 
New York Hotel which had previously been secured for 
their occupation. The Princess was not pretty, but she 
was a kind, unassuming, devotional little lady, who won 
the hearts of all who had occasion to pass much time in 
her company. She had but one lady of honor with her, 
a sprightly little Duchess, the widow of the oldest son of 
one of the first Napoleon's marshals, and together they 
made their drawing-room on Washino-ton Place a de- 



230 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

lio^htful resort for those who had the advantao;e of their 
acquaintance. The Chevalier Bertinatti, the Itahan 
Minister in Washington, was a constant attendant upon 
the daughter of his king. 

As the Prince's oldest acquaintance in this country, it 
devolved upon me to show him the sights of New York. 
Together we visited the Custom-House, the United States 
Treasury and Assay Office, the Astor Library, the Kew 
York Historical Society's collections, the Cooper Union, 
the Novelty Works, and numerous other places and in- 
stitutions. But what I most desired him to see was a 
first-class New York private dwelling. Accordingly, 
with the permission of the owner, I accompanied him to 
the palatial residence at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 
Fifteenth Street, then belonging to and occupied by Mr. 
Benkaed, and now the house of the Manhattan Club. 
Nothing in New York interested the Prince so much. 
He was delighted w^itli it. He went from cellar to 
garret, carefully examining the furnace, the boiler, the 
cro ton -water arrangements, the speaking-tubes, and all 
those appurtenances of a model American dwelling 
which we are accustomed to designate "modern im- 
provements." This inspection occupied several hours, 
and when we left he expressed the opinion that in do- 
mestic architecture and appliances for comfort we were 
in advance of the rest of the world. "You know the 
state apartments in the Palais Imperial, and they are 
magnificent," he said ; " but did you ever see the rooms 
in which we have to live there ?" I told him that I had 
not. "Well," he resumed, "they are small, wretched 
holes, unprovided with any of the ingenious and labor- 
saving contrivances which I have just seen, and so un- 



PRINCE NAPOLEON IN NEW TORE. 231 

comfortable that when I was first married I was ashamed 
to take my wife to them." 

Afterward I escorted the Prince and Princess to the 
picture-galleries of Mr. Belmont and Mr. Aspinwall, 
who, being themselves absent from town, kindly permit- 
ted them to be thrown open for the pnrpose. 

On the 19th of September, the Chevalier Bektinatti 
gave a magnificent dinner to the Prince at the residence 
of the Duke di Licignano, the Italian Consul-General at 
New York, in First Place, in Brooklyn. Sitting next 
to the Prince, all my talk with him on that occasion was 
npon the snbject of the war, and I told him about the 
enormous price which our Government was compelled 
to pay for arms, and with what difiiculty it procured 
them at all. I will here observe that his sympathies 
were thoroughly and warmly enlisted in favor of the 
Union, and against the supremacy of the slaveholding 
South. He professed great admiration for the American 
people. To what I told him about our condition in re- 
spect of arms, he at once replied that he could arrange 
the whole matter for us. lie said that they had an ex- 
cess beyond their requirements of altered muskets in tlie 
French arsenals, and that he could procure them for us 
at cost, which was about half the price that we were 
then paying. That, besides, the Swedish Government 
possessed a very large supply of muskets of the best 
quality, and that he had sufiicient influence to secure 
some of them also for us ; that from these two countries 
we could draw enough for our present needs ; that 
Switzerland was also well provided with arms, but that 
the Government of that country would not part with any 
of them. If I could be made the ao;ent in this trans- 



232 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

action, he would guarantee the result. He told me that 
through him the Italians had received one hundred thou- 
sand stands of arms from the Imperial Government, and 
that they had not yet paid a single franc on account of 
the purchase. In conclusion, he advised me to immedi- 
ately communicate with the authorities at Washington. 

At this time I had no intimacy with any member of 
the Cabinet except Seceetaey Chase, and to him I ad- 
dressed a letter, giving an account of my conversation 
with the Prince. I received the following reply under 
date of October 3 : 

"My dear Sir, — Accept my thanks for your veiy interesting 
letter and for the valuable infomiation it contained. I fear nego- 
tiations in respect to arms through Mr. Schuyx,er are in such a 
condition that the Government will not be able to avail itself of 
your valuable services. Had I known some weeks since what I 
know now, important advantages might have been derived to the 
common cause. 

" I shall always be glad to hear from you. 

" Yours truly, S. P. Chase. 

" Maunsell B. Field, Esq." 

So the matter fell through, and the occasion never 
arose to revive it. 

The Prince carried out his purpose of going to Lake 
Superior, and also made a somewhat extensive tour 
through the "West, During his absence from New York, 
the Princess passed nearly all her time with the ladies 
of the Sacred Heart at their convent at Manhattan ville. 
After his return a magnificent dinner was given to him 
by the members of the Union Club, at their liouse at the 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first Street. Ex- 
GovERNOR John A. King, of New York, then President 



DINNER TO PRINCE NAPOLEON. 233 

of the Club, received him, and ex-Yice-Chancelloe and 
Judge Anthony L. Robertson presided. The Prince 
found the dinner admirable, and was particularly pleased 
with the wines, which he pronounced equal to any that 
he had ever tasted at the Imperial table or elsewhere. 
The Prince's particular attention Avas attracted to Mr. 
Leonard Jerome, and he said that, meeting him in any 
part of the world, he should take him for a French cav- 
alry general. The following clipping from a newspaper 
of the next morning gives an accurate account of the 
affair : 

•' The dinner given to Prince Napoleon at the Union Club last 
evening was pronounced a capital success by the guests. 

"At the door-way of the Club-house stood the inevitable Brown, 
who acted as Master of Ceremonies. The interior of the building 
was profusely decorated with natural flowers, and Dodworth's 
Band discoursed music unseen behind a lattice -work erected in 
the hall, playing, among other things, ^ Partant 2wur la Si/rie,'' as the 
ai)propriate invitation music to the dinner. 

Judge A.L. Robertson, Secretary of the Club, occupied the chair. 
Mr. Maunsell B. Field, as an acquaintance of the Prince and Im- 
perial family abroad, very jaroperly held the place of a virtual 
Master of Ceremonies, having superintended all the preliminary 
arrangements of the banquet, and been aj^pointed to the delicate 
office of placing the guests. 

" In addition to the members of the Club, there were present at 
the dinner : His Imperial Highness Prince Napoleon (Jerome) ; 
Colonel Ragon, the celebrated Frenclx officer who led the attack 
upon the Malakoflf; Captain Bontils, of the French Navy, and 
formerly Governor of Gaudeloui^e ; Captain de Buisson, Comman- 
der of the Imperial yacht ; M.Maurice Sand, son of the celebrated 
George Sand ; M. Mercier, French Minister to Washington ; M. 
HocMELLE ; the Marquis de Montholon, French Consul-General 
at this jiort, accompanied by his Vice- Consul; Mr. Bertinatti, 
Italian Minister to the United States, and the Duke di Licignano, 



234: 3IEM0RJES OF MANY MEN. 

Italian Consul -General at New York. Tlie Vicomte de Beau- 
mont, and Colonel Ferri Pisani, though invited, were unavoid- 
ably absent, the latter being replaced by Lieutenant Becque, of 
the yacht. 

" The restraint natural to Republicans who have to entertain 
representatives of a foreign nobility was removed as early as pos- 
sible after the ceremonious placing of the guests, and a general 
conversation soon i)revailed around the table. 



" After the removal of the cloth, the Chaii-man, Judge Robert- 
son, proposed the health of the French Emperor, which was re- 
plied to in a sjieech of great cordiality by the Prince. He ex- 
pressed himself with an unexijected freedom from restraint, and 
was received with frequent applause. In return, he proposed the 
' Welfare of the United States,' which, as need not be said, the 
party drank with great enthusiasm. After other toasts, and a free 
interchange of kindly sentiments, the Prince was escorted to his 
hotel by his friend, Mr. Field. By an unfortunate delay, General 
Wool and his party came to the Club-house to pay their respects 
to the Prince and his entertainers just after his Highness had de- 
parted." 

At a dinner given to tlie Prince at the Revere House, 
in Boston, Dr. Oliver "Wendell Holmes read the fol- 
lowing spirited lines : 

"VIVE LA FRANCE! 

"The land of sunshine and of song! 

Her name your hearts divine ; 
To her the banquet's vows belong 

Whose breasts have poured its wine; 
Our trusty friend, our true ally 

Through varied change and chance : 
So fill your flashing goblets high — 

I give you VrvE la France ! 



"FZ"F^ LA FRANCE!'' 235 

"Above our hosts in triiDle folds 

The self-same colors spi'ead, 
Where Valor's truthful arm upholds 

The blue, the white, the red ; 
Alike each nation's glittering crest 

Reflects tl;e morning's glance — 
Twin eagles, soaring east and west : 

Once more, then, Viye la France ! 

" Sister in trial ! who shall count 

Thy generous friendship's claim, 
Whose blood ran mingling in the fount 

That gave our laud its name, 
Till Yorktown saw in blended line 

Our conquering arms advance. 
And Victory's double garlands twine 

Our banners? Vive la France! 

" O land of heroes ! in our need 

One gift froni heaven we crave — 
To stanch those wounds that vainly bleed — 

The wise to lead the brave ! 
Call back one CaiDtain of thy past 

From glory's marble trance, 
Whose name shall be a bugle-blast 

To rouse us ! Vive la France ! 

"Pluck Conde's baton from the trench, 

Wake up stout Charles Martel, 
Or find some woman's hand to clench 

The sword of La Pucelle ! 
Give us one hour of old Turenne, 

One lift of Bayard's lance — 
Nay, call Marengo's chief again 

To lead us ! Vive la France ! 

"Ah, hush ! our welcome Guest shall hear 
But sounds of peace and joy ; 
No angry echo vex thine ear, 
Fair daughter of Savoy! 



236 3IEM0BIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

Once more ! the land of arms and arts, 

Of glory, grace, romance ; 
Her love lies "warm in all our hearts ! 

God bless her ! Vive la France !" 

I made the following translation of the above lines 
into very indifferent Frencli verse, and read it at a din- 
ner given at the same Cliib-hoiise some time later to the 
Admiral commanding the French fleet on the North 
American station : 

VIVE LA FRANCE! 

Tcn-e de la chanson, du soleil bien aimSe, 

Qui nous verses le jus divin, 
Terre des doux nectars, vos cceurs vous Font nommee, 

A toi les vceux de ce festin ; 
A Tallig fidfele, ami de notre enfance, 

Qui i^artagea notre destin ! 

Debout ! et que, le verre plein, 
Chacun repute ce refrain : " Vive la France !" 

Les trois memes couleurs de triples plis abritent 

De nos soldats les loyaux rangs ; 
Sur les champs de I'honneur quand vaillament s'agitent 

Les gtendars rouges, bleus, blancs ; 
A I'aurore du jour le double aigle s'61ance 

Embrassant de ses yeux ardents 

L'emi^ire de deux continents ! 
'Remj)lissons encore et buvons : " Vive la France !" 

O ! sceur qui partageas nos revers et nos peines ! 

Pourrons nous oublier le don 
Du sang de tes enfixnts repandu dans nos plaines 

Pour le salut de notre nom ? 
Jusqu'au jour ou gaicmcnt en double front s'avance 

La phalange de nos guerriers, 

Tressant ensemble les lauriers 
Pour les drapeaux d'Yorktown, chantons: "Vive la France!" 



''VIVE LA FRANCE r 237 

Terre cles clievaliers ! en ce jour de misSre, 

Dgcouvrant notre flauc sanglant, 
Nous demandons au ciel eu notre humble j)ri&re 

Un sage, guide du vaillant ! 
Des guerriers dont tes fils gardeut la souvenance 

Pour nous evoque les grands noms ; 

Mgl6s au bruit de nos claii-ons, 
Qu'ils dispersent nos ennemis : " Yive la France !" 

Le baton que Conde lan^a dans la tranchee, 

Ou le fer de Charles Martel, 
Ou bien de Jeaxne d'Aro la foudroyante 6j)ge, 

Pour nous attendent ton appel ! 
Prete nous de Bayard TincorruiDtible lance, 

Un jour de Turenne, ou plutot 

La grande ombre de Marengo ! 
Vainqueurs, nous les suivrons au cri : " Vive la France !" 

Mais chut ! qu'un chant de paix, que des accents de joie 

Charment I'hote que nous futons ; 
Qu'aucun accent guerrier, tille de la Savoie, 

Jusqu'a; toi ne porte ses sons ! 
A toi, terre des arts ! SL toi, douce espgrance 

De la valeur, de la beaute ! 

Par nous que ce cri repute 
Arrive au Seigneur tout-puissant : " Vive la France !" 

The evening before the Prince and Princess sailed 
on their return to France thej gave a charming enter- 
tainment to a party of ladies and gentlemen on board 
the yacht, in return for some of the courtesies extended 
to themselves. 



CHAPTEE yil. 

SOON after tlie Prince of Wales arrived in Amer- 
ica in the year 1860, certain citizens of New York 
held a meeting at the Merchants' Bank for the pnr- 
pose of inviting him to that city, and of tendering 
him some special civilities. A Committee was formed, 
and, after much consideration, it was decided to offer 
him a dinner. Many preferred a ball ; but some of the 
most eminent members of the Committee had scruples 
upon the subject. Mr. Petek Coopee was appointed 
Chairman, and I Secretary, of the Committee. We had 
an invitation to a dinner, at such time as the Prince 
should designate, appropriately engrossed ; and it was de- 
termined that a delegation from our number should pro- 
ceed to Montreal, and there present it to him in person. 
Among those who went upon this mission were ex- 
GovERNOE Hamilton Fish, ex-Goyeenoe John A. King, 
Mr. John Jacob Astoe, Mr. Robeet L. Kennedy, and my- 
self, as Secretary of the Committee. When we arrived 
at the railway station upon the St. Lawrence, opposite 
to Montreal, upon the 23d of August, we were met 
there by the American Consul-General in the British 
Provinces, who informed us that the Mayor of Montreal, 
Mr. Rodiee, was awaiting us upon the other side, in order 
to receive us officially. This was very annoying intelli- 
gence to us. There were ladies in our party, and they, 
as well as ourselves, were covered with dust and be- 



THE PEINCE OF WALES. 239 

grimed by cinders. When we landed from the feri-y- 
boat wliich transported us across, sure enough there was 
the Mayor in full regalia, chain and all. We had set- 
tled it that Mr. Fisn must be the spokesman for us — 
very much to that gentleman's disgust. The Mayor 
made us a grandiloquent address in broken English, and 
Mr, Fish, his person ensconced in a linen duster, and with 
a traveling-bag in each hand, made a neat and even ele- 
gant reply. In the mean time the landing-place was 
covered by a miscellaneous crowd, principally composed 
of small boys, who shouted and cheered us. Then his 
Honor informed us that carriages were in waiting to 
conduct us to our hotel. They consisted of three or 
four of the ordinary Montreal street cabs, and we en- 
tered them, and were soon comfortably housed in Saint 
Lawrence Hall. I will here remark that a very extor- 
tionate bill for those cabs was sent to us in the course of 
a day or two, which we paid without demurrer. 

On the afternoon of Friday, the 24th, the Prince ar- 
rived in town, and we were officially invited to be pres- 
ent upon the occasion. Saturday was distinguished by 
the formal opening of the Victoria Bridge. We were 
also provided wntli tickets to witness that ceremony, and 
we made the journey in the Prince's private car by his 
invitation. He received us with the greatest courtesy, 
shaking hands with us according to American usage, 
and treating us in every respect with marked attention. 

That evening Loed Lyons and Geneeal Beuce, the 
Prince's " Go^■ernor," called upon us at our hotel. 
They made merely a brief visit, in Mdiich the special 
business which had brought us to Montreal was only 
referred to in very general terms. But the next day 



240 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

they came again, and at that interview tlie conver- 
sation was very free. The Englishmen would have 
preferred any thing to a dinner. The Prince could 
not himself speak : he was to be in the States in- 
cognito, under the title of Lord Renfrew. Nor would 
it answer that any one should speak for him. Besides, 
at a large dinner it was to be apprehended that remarks 
might be made by some of the speakers which would 
become subjects for future regret. Tlie Prince was 
very young. He was fond of amusement. A dinner, 
if there were no other objections to it, might be too 
heavy an affair to entertain him. In a word, they were 
sorry that we had decided for a dinner, although none 
the less mindful of the kindly feeling which had 
prompted the purpose, etc., etc., etc. And with this they 
left us, and we Americans remained for consultation. 
They had given us a cue, and we decided, in behalf of 
our constituents, to take the responsibility of following it. 
We unanimously determined to substitute a ball in place 
of the dinner, and, having done so, notified General 
Beuce to that effect. lie was delighted, and was sure 
that the Prince would be charmed to accept. 

The next thing was to secure the services of a scriv- 
ener to re-engross the invitation which we had brought 
with us, so as to make it apply to a ball instead of a din- 
ner. One was very soon found, who executed his com- 
mission with great celerity. 

Thereupon we were asked to lunch with the Prince 
on Monday afternoon, at General Sir William Fenwick 
Williams's house in the suburbs, where his Royal High- 
ness was stopping. This was to be the occasion for pre- 
sentinc: our invitation. 



THE PRINCE OF WALES BALL. 241 

Our party included several persons besides those I 
have named. One of lis had come in great haste, and 
had brought no dress coat with him ; but he found a 
friend in town wlio supplied the deficiency. At the 
luncheon, the Prince and all his suite w^ere in full uni- 
form. All the Americans Avere suitably attired, and con- 
formed to the usages of polite society, except one gentle- 
man who sat opposite the Prince, and who ate with his 
knife, and wore a white waistcoat upon which the but- 
tons were missing. lie had, how^ever, supplied their 
places with pins, and these pins were very provokingly 
visible. After dinner we retired to a reception-room, and 
there the invitation was read to the Prince by Mr. King, 
and accepted by him in a few hesitating words. 

We then )-eturned to New York, reported our action 
to those who had sent us, and received their approval. 
The work of preparation commenced, and terribly labori- 
ous and trying work it was. The scheme adopted %vas to 
have a Committee of four hundred gentlemen, to be duly 
elected by the smaller Committee already formed. Each 
member of the Committee was to pay seventy dollars, 
and to be entitled to seven tickets ; but he was required 
to submit a list of the jDersons for whom he intended 
them to an Executi^•e Committee, who passed upon their 
eligibility. Of these seven tickets, at least four must be 
for ladies ; but this was afterward reduced to three. Be- 
sides, every ticket had to be countersigned by a member 
of the sub-Committee on Tickets and Finance, and also 
by the member of the Committee at whose request it 
was issued. Seven sub-Committees were constituted — 
viz., one on Invitations, one on Tickets and Finance^ 
one on Reception, one on House and Music, one on 

L 



242 ME3I0BIES OF 31 ANT MEN. 

Decorations, one on Police and Carriages, and one on 
S'U'2')2)er and Floor. 

From the reports wliicli we received from tliese sub- 
Committees, we were soon induced to believe that we 
should require more money than we had in hand. There 
was a supper-room 'to be built expressly for the occasion, 
and other expenses to be incurred which we had not at 
first thought of. Accordingly, we made an additional 
assessment of thirty dollars each upon the four hundred 
members of the General Committee, which was prompt- 
ly paid into the treasury. 

All K^ew York soon became wild upon the subject of 
this ball. Venerable citizens who had never attended a 
place of public amusement in their lives humiliated 
themselves in every possible way in order to have their 
names placed upon the Committee. Ladies begged for 
tickets almost upon bended knees. Such importunities 
were never addressed to a Prime Minister as were be- 
seechingly poured into the ears of those members of the 
Committee who had the misfortune to be prominent in 
the affair. The applications for complimentary invita- 
tions were also overwhelming. The Press, too, was very 
exacting. 

Before coming to Kew York, the Prince made a jour- 
ney to the West, to Virginia, to Washington, and to Phil- 
adelphia. At Washington he lodged in the Executive 
Mansion, and it is said that Pkesident Buchanan used to 
surreptitiously convey choice cigars into his room after 
his mentors had retired for the night. He left Phila- 
delphia with his suite early on the morning of Thursday, 
the 11th of October. Mr. Augustus Schell, then Col- 
lector of the Port of New York, invited a distinguished 



RECEPTION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 243 

party to embark on board tlie United States revenue 
cutter Harriet Lane, Captain Faunce, at half-23ast eight 
o'clock that morning, to proceed to Perth Amboj to meet 
and accompany the Prince and his suite to the city. The 
train from Philadelphia arrived on time, and a little aft- 
er twelve his Royal Highness, followed by the Ddke of 
Newcastle, the Eael of St. Germans, and the other gen- 
tlemen who accompanied him, all in dusty garments, and 
wearing " shocking bad" white hats, stepped on board the 
cutter. It took some time to get their luggage on board, 
and then to the music of a royal salute the Harriet Lane 
started upon her return trip. The day was ^ery lovely, 
and with a single exception every thing passed off very 
agreeably. One old and rather prosy gentleman deemed 
it especially incumbent upon him to entertain the Prince. 
Por some time he monopolized his attention, and was ev- 
idently boring him to the very limit of his boyish pa- 
tience. Seeing this, some of us held counsel together, 
and decided that General Scott must head a relief 
party. The old soldier carried out our suggestion with 
perfect success, and during the remainder of the pas- 
sage the Prince was at liberty to converse with whom 
he pleased. After an elegant luncheon had been served, 
the Prince went upon the upper deck, and, with several 
of the juniors, smoked cigars of a very superior qual- 
ity which he produced from his pocket — probably some 
of Mr. Buchanan's. Afterward we went forward, and 
ex-Jcdge Roosevelt, then United States District Attor- 
ney, undertook to point out to the Prince the principal 
objects of interest in the harbor, and to explain the as- 
sociations connected with some of them. While so do- 
ing, he had occasion to refer to a date in English history. 



244 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

The Prince courteously corrected him. Mr, Eoosevelt 
politely insisted that he was right. The Duke of New- 
castle happened to be standing near, but out of ear-shot. 
His Koyal Highness called him, and merely asked him 
what was the date in dispute. The Duke unhesitatingly 
confirmed the Prince's recollection of it. 

We reached the pier at twenty minutes past two. 
On entering Castle Garden the Prince was received by 
the Mayor, Fernando Wood, and a delegation of both 
Boards of the Common Conncil. He immediately re- 
tired to the room of the Commissioners of Emigration, 
and exchanged his citizen's dress for the uniform of a 
Colonel in the British Army. He then mounted a horse 
expressly brought for bis use from the Provinces, and 
reviewed upon the Battery the First Division of New 
York State Militia, under the command of Majoe-Gen- 
eeal Sanford. Afterward he entered an open carriage 
drawn by six horses, accompanied by the Mayor, the 
Duke of Newcastle, and the Earl of St. Germans, and 
drove to the City Hall, wdiere he received the honor 
of a marching review. When he re-entered his car- 
riage the day was already so far advanced that it was 
dark before he reached his quarters at the Fifth Avenue 
Hotel. All along the route he was vociferously cheered 
by the unprecedented multitude of people that filled 
Broad\yay; but the disappointment occasioned by the 
delay in carrying out the military programme, and the 
consequent inability of patient sight-seers to scan the 
Prince's features at so late an hour, called out many im- 
precations upon the devoted head of the commanding 
General. 

It had been desired and intended that the Prince 



THE PRINCE OB' WALES IN NEW YORK. 245 

should ride np Broadway on horseback. He himself 
preferred to do so, and the horse which he mounted on 
the Battery had been expressly brought on for the pur- 
pose. But some in authority thought tliat the street was 
too slippery, and therefore dangerous. Besides, there 
M'as a vague apprehension on the part of the English 
gentlemen that some of her Majesty's expatriated sub- 
jects, who constitute so large a proportion of the popu- 
lation of the metropolitan city, might attempt to harm 
and insult him, if too much exposed. There was not 
much foundation for their fears. Only once while in 
New York did he receive any discourtesy, and that w^as 
at the hands of an insane English mechanic, who was 
promptly arrested. 

The question of how he should dress w^as also one that 
was much discussed. As he traveled through the States 
as Lord Benfreiu, his own suite, as well as Loed Lyons, 
did not think that it comported with his incognito to ap- 
pear otherwise than in ordinary citizen's costume. Our 
people thought differently. They desired to receive him 
as the Prince of Wales, the son of Queen Yictoeia. 
The matter was finally compromised by the arrange- 
ment that he should wear his military uniform at the 
review, and the ribbon of the Order of the Garter at 
the ball. 

While the Prince remained in New York he was kept 
pretty constantly on tlie move. Mayoe Wood gave a 
cliarming breakfast in his honor, at his residence, Wood 
Lawn, Bloomingdale. He called upon Geneeal Scott 
at his house on Twelfth Street. He lunched with the 
British Consul in New York, Mr. Aechibald, He had sev- 
eral photographs taken by Beady and Gueney. He visited 



246 3IEM0EIES OF MANY MEN. 

the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Mount Washington, the 
University of the City of New York, the New York Free 
Academy (as then designated), the Cooper Institute, the 
Astor Library, etc. There was also a superb torchlight 
procession of the New York Fire Department in his hon- 
or. At that time the Department boasted of only one 
steamer, all the otliers being the old-fashioned engines 
worked by hand. Now there are none but steamers. 

The ball took place on the evening of Friday, the 12th 
of October. A deputation of the reception Committee, 
of which I was one, went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at 
about nine o'clock, to escort the Prince and liis immediate 
suite to the Academy of Music. All his party soon made 
their appearance in the drawing-room, but the Prince 
himself kept us waiting a long time. Finally he too 
came in, and, after shaking hands with us, retired to the 
entrance-door, and was for some time hopelessly engaged 
in an effort to force his not very small hands into a pair 
of gloves altogether too tight for them. After a mo- 
ment I stej^ped up to him, and he said to me in an un- 
dertone, " These gloves were sent to me by a lady in this 
house, with the request that I should wear them to-night ; 
I don't know who she is. They are much too small for 
me ; but I intend to work my hands into them, if I 
can." He finally succeeded. He added, " I am a little 
late to-night, because I have been writing home to my 
mother." Although much older than himself, I was so 
much younger than the sexagenarians who chiefly had 
possession of him that he seemed to take xcyj kindly 
to me. 

I have no intention to particularly describe the ball. 
It was magnificent ; but, in spite of all the efforts of tlie 



THE PRINCE OF WALES BALL. 247 

Committee, tliere were too many elderly persons. Thir- 
ty-three exceptional tickets had been issued to young 
" dancing-men." The contretemps of the falling in of a 
portion of the floor was most unfortunate. The Com- 
mittee had made very particular inquiries about its solid- 
ity, and had been assured that it was perfectly safe. The 
accident partly arose from the weight of an immense 
throng of people who collected around the Prince and 
concentrated upon one spot. The crowd was suffocating. 
The Committee had been misled as to the capacity of 
the house, and people deserted the upper boxes and 
swelled the tide below. At one time it was feared that 
some must have gained admission by presenting spurious 
tickets ; but, upon a count, it was found that there were 
only three tliousand and twenty-five tickets in the boxes, 
while three thousand one hundred and ninety-five paid 
and complimentary ones had been legitimately issued. 
Of those entitled to come, one hundred and seventy had 
stayed away. 

The Committee had a great deal of trouble about the 
matter of partners for the Prince. Every woman in 
New York was dying to dance with him ; and husbands, 
fathers, and brothers urgently pressed the claims of their 
fair relatives. Finally, the Committee referred the whole 
matter to Mr. William Butlek Duncan, loitli jpoioer. 
This gentleman, as brave as he is courteous, undertook 
the obnoxious task of making selections, and performed 
it as judiciously and satisfactorily as it was possible to 
do. Still, of course, there were grumblers. Female am- 
bition upon such a subject was insatiable. 

The next Sunday the Prince attended divine service 
in Trinity Church. There were four bishops and thirty- 



248 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

five clergymen present. A full choral service was per- 
formed by nine men and fourteen boys. He was pre- 
sented with a very handsome Bible, and almost equally 
liandsome Prayer-book. The former was a royal octavo 
volume, bound in red morocco, with a large gold clasp, 
upon which was engraved a Prince of Wales plume, with 
the motto "Tt'A Dien^ On the cover was the following 
inscription in gold letters : 

" To his Royal Higliness, Albert Edward, Prince of "Wales, 
from the Corporation of Trinity Church, New York, in memory of 
the munificence of the Crown of England. Nineteenth Sunday aft- 
er Trinity, A.D. 1860." 

The Prayer-book was bound in brown Eussia leather, 
and had two silver clasps. On the inside was engraved 
the Garter, surmounted by a crown, with the motto, 
'''■Iloni soil qui mat y ^ense^^ and the royal standard of 
England in the centre. On the opposite page was in- 
scribed : 

" To his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, from Frakcis Vin- 
ton, D.D., and Frederick Ogilby, D.D., the clergymen in charge 
of Trinity Church, Ncw York, as a memorial of the Nineteenth Sun- 
day after Trinity." 

The Eev. Dr.YmxoN preached from the following text: 

" Then the Presidents and Princes sought to find occasion against 
Daniel concerning the Mngdom; but they could find none occasion 
nor fault ; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error 
or fault found in him. ^ 

" Then said these men. We shall not fiind any occasion against 
this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of 
his God" (Dan. vi., 4, 5). 

The Prince and his party took their departure from 



AN ECONOJSLICAL COMMITTEE. 249 

Xew York on the next, Monday, morning at ten o'clock. 
I called upon Mm at his hotel to take leave of him. 
He was very kind and cordial, and when informed that 
his carriage was waiting, he walked with me from his 
drawing-room to it, holding my hand boy-fashion all the 
way. He was at that time as amiable and good-natm'ed 
a youth as I ever met. 

When the ball Committee came to finally settle its ac- 
counts, the following was the result : 

Total amount received . . . $41,006 65 

" " expended . . . 28,746 65 

Balance on hand $13,260 00 

Or $30 G5 for each of the four hundred subscribers, 
which was returned to them by checks of the Treasurer, 
Mr. EoYAL Phelps. 

I believe that there is no other instance on record of a 
Committee charged with the expenditure of money which 
did not spend the whole of it. In almost every other 
similar case that I have ever heard of there has been a 
deficiency. If for no other reason than the foregoing, 
the Prince of Wales ball in New York is entitled to be 
distinguished from every other public festival of wliich 
our metropolitan annals contain any mention. 

L 2 



CHAPTER YIII. 

rpOWAED the close of the year 1860, after the elec- 
-*- tion of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, but before 
the Legislatures of any of the states had passed ordi- 
nances of secession, it became necessary for the United 
States Government to negotiate a loan of ten millions of 
dollars. As the national credit up to this time continued 
unimpaired, the rate of interest was fixed at five per cent. 
But financiers were already beginning to be somewhat 
distrustful about the future of the country, and it was 
only through the unremitting exertions of the Hon. John 
J. Cisco, the Assistant Treasurer at ISTew York, that the 
whole amount was finally subscribed. In accordance 
with the terms of the loan, one per cent, of the amount 
taken by each subscriber was deposited by him at the 
time of making the subscription. A day or two after 
the transaction was thus far completed, the Hon. Howell 
Cobb, of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury, arrived 
in New York. When he came to the Treasury, Mr. Cisco 
warmly congratulated him upon the success of the loan. 
His reply was, " Cisco, the people who have taken it are 
a pack of d — d fools. It will never be paid. The 
country is going to be broken to pieces. Georgia is 
going out of the Union ; and when she goes, I shall 
go with her." " Why, Mr. Secretary," rejoined Mr. Cisco, 
"lam amazed to find you a secessionist." 

Tlie bonds were to be ]-»aid for by installments. Before 



AN EMPTY TREASURY. 251 

the time for the final payment arriNed, several of the 
states had attempted to withdraw from the Union. Of 
the ten millions subscribed, only about seven millions in 
all was paid. Several prominent banking-houses in ISTew 
York and Washington refused to fulfill their obhgations, 
and allowed their deposits of one per cent, to be forfeited. 

Mr. Cobb withdrew from the Cabinet, as he had threat- 
ened to do, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas, of Mary- 
land. In the mean time, nearly all the money in the 
Treasury had been nsed for ordinary disbursements. 
There was a large amount of interest upon the public 
debt due upon the first of Januarj^, lS61,and the means 
were unprovided to meet it. The Secretary wished Mr. 
Cisco to use for this purpose the moneys placed to the 
credit of the disbursing oflicers of the Government, but 
he peremptorily declined to do so. Mr. Thomas was un- 
able to command the confidence of the people of the 
North. At this juncture, a correspondence ensued be- 
tween himself and Mr. Cisco, and he finally, with the ap- 
probation of the President, whom he consulted upon the 
subject, authorized that officer to obtain a Treasury -note 
loan, at the unprecedented rate of twelve per cent, per 
annum, in order to save the Government from going to 
protest upon its interest. 

But even this was not an easy thing to do in the state 
of feeling which prevailed among capitalists. As a last 
resort, on the evening of the thirty-first of December, Mr. 
Cisco, accompanied by Mr. Yail, Cashier of the Bank of 
Commerce, drove to the residences of the largest holders 
of the public debt in New York and Brooklyn. They 
represented to those gentlemen the fearful depreciation 
in the value of their property which must inevitably oc- 



252 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

cur if the interest due on the morrow should not be 
promptly paid. The result was that they returned home 
at a very late hour, having contracted for a sufficient 
amount of notes to save the Government from the im- 
pending catastrophe. 

Although Mr. Cisco was then and afterward satisfied 
that Seceetaky Thoivias was a loyal man, so far as his 
purposes were concerned, still it is naturally presumable 
that in feeling he sympathized with the section of coun- 
try to which he belonged. At all events, it was appar- 
ent that without another change in the Treasury Depart- 
ment there would be no more money forthcoming to the 
national coffers from New York. At this juncture Mr. 
Cisco w^rote to Peesident Buchanan, recommending the 
appointment of General John A. Dix as Secretary of 
the Treasury. A few days later a delegation of Bank 
Presidents and others proceeded to Washington for the 
purpose of urging the change. Shortly afterward the 
President telegraphed to General Dix that he desired 
him to come to Washington. The General complied with 
the request, and, upon his arrival at the capital, Mr. Bu- 
chanan insisted that he should be his guest at the Execu- 
tive Mansion. They talked together that evening, and 
again the next morning at breakfast. The result was the 
immediate appointment of General Dix as Secretary of 
the Treasury. The advent as Financial Minister of this 
most respected, and most worthy to be respected, of all 
American statesmen, restored to the moneyed people of 
the ISTorth all that confidence in the Government which 
was possible in the unsettled condition of public affairs 
which then existed. 

Mr. Dix continued a Cabinet officer only until the sue- 



A LOYAL DE2I0CEAT. 253 

ceediiig fourth of March, when Mr. Lincoln coming in 
as President, Mr. S. P. Chase, of Ohio, became his Secre- 
tary of the Treasury. 

As soon as the new Administration was organized, Mr. 
Cisco sent to Mr. Chase his resignation as Fiscal Agent 
of the Government in Xew York, witli the request that 
he would immediately present it to the President, and 
secure the appointment of his successor at an early day. 
Some time passed and he heard nothing in reply. Hav- 
ing opposed Mr. Lincoln's election, he was surprised at 
this delay. Besides, the condition of his health was such 
that he was anxious to be promptly relieved from the 
responsibilities of his office, which had been great in 
the past, and promised to become overwhelming in the 
future. 

In the mean time no less than three gentlemen, emi- 
nent in the Republican party, and friends of Mr. Chase, 
called upon Mr. Cisco at different times, for the purpose 
of obtaining detailed information upon the subject of the 
finances. They all admitted that they came in behalf of 
the Secretary. Mr. Cisco resented this action as a slight 
to himself, and informed them that, if the Secretary 
desired the information in question, the proper course 
would be for him to ask it directly from his own Fiscal 
Agent. 

Then came a letter of apology from Mr. Chase, whose 
only excuse was his want of personal acquaintance with 
him. At the same time he assured him that he had satis- 
fied himself as to his thorough loyalty, his fidelity, and 
his eminent ability. 

A short time afterward he again wrote to him, request- 
ing him to remain in the Treasury, mentioning that sucli 



254 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. 

was also the desire of the President. This was followed 
by a letter from Mr. Lincoln himself to the same effect. 
Under these circumstances, Mr. Cisco thought it his duty 
to yield to their w^ishes, and withdrew his resignation. 

Shortly after it was settled that he should continue in 
office, I accepted an invitation from Mr. Cisco to come 
to him in a confidential capacity. As soon as Congress 
met they passed an Act authorizing the appointment of a 
Deputy Assistant Treasurer of the United States at N^ew 
York, and the position was immediately tendered to me 
and accepted. I continued to hold it until I went to 
Washington in the year 1863, as Assistant Secretary of 
the Treasury. 

Tiie number of clerks employed in the New York 
Treasury office when I first entered it did not exceed 
twenty-five or thirty. The enormous volume of business 
which presently devolved upon it, as the medium through 
wliich the public loans were negotiated and collected, 
soon required the employment of a clerical force exceed- 
ing one hundred in number. 

The new Administration liad not been a very long 
time in office, when Mr. Chase sent for Mr. Cisco, whom 
he had never met, to come to Washington. By his invi- 
tation he went as a guest to the Secretary's house, at the 
corner of E and Sixth Streets. In their first interview, 
which took place in the evening, Mr. Chase told him that 
he desired his presence in order to consult with him in 
regard to a financial policy for the country. Upon this 
occasion they had a very protracted conversation, in 
wliich each was evidently endeavoring to take the meas- 
ure of the other. " We are going to have a long, bloody, 
and costly war," said Mr. Cisco; "the only possible poli(7 



THE SINEWS OF WAR. 255 

is that of long bonds and strong taxation," " How, sir V 
replied the Secretary ; " are you not aware that we shall 
soon have seventy-five thousand men in the field ?" At 
this time some people high in place were talking about 
a sixty-days' war, and Mr. Chase evidently shared this 
most mistaken impression. "As to strong taxation," he 
continued, "the people of this countiy will not bear it, 
and there is no need for it." Nevertheless, Mr. Cisco ad- 
hered to his expressed opinion, and assigned his reasons 
for it. Mr. Chase eyed him curiously, as if he was medi- 
tating whether he, after all, could be a secessionist in 
disguise. 

The next morning they had another long talk before 
breakfast. Mr. Chase told Mr. Cisco that he had been 
very much impressed by his views, that he had been all 
night thinking over what he had said, but that he could 
not " go in " for strong taxation, " Without it," rej^lied 
Mr. Cisco, " we shall inevitably drift into a suspension of 
specie payments." " JSTever," rejoined Mr. Chase, " so 
long as I am Secretary of the Treasury !" Mr, Cisco also 
believed that taxation would hasten the termination of 
the war. In conclusion, he told Mr. Chase that what- 
ever policy he should decide upon, he might rely upon 
his earnest co-operation to aid him in carrying it out. 

Thus commenced, from the very beginning, that series 
of successful expedients, that hand-to-mouth policy, which 
carried us along so far without a financial disaster. 

Shortly after this, and when some grand negotiation 
had become necessary, Mr. Chase visited ISTew York, and 
met the leading bank-oflicers and capitalists of that city, 
and of Boston and Philadelphia, at Mr. Cisco's house, on 
the nineteenth of August, 18G1. There was much desul- 



256 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK 

tory discussion at the beginiiig ; and tlien Mr. Chase, after 
being pushed to the wall to say what he wanted, proposed 
a loan of fifty millions of dollars in Seven-thirty Treasury 
notes, with the privilege of converting them into Twenty- 
year bonds, with the option to the subscribers to take fifty 
millions more, and again the further sum of fifty millions 
— one hundred and fifty millions in all. Many regarded 
it as a most plausible suggestion, and a meeting of the 
oflicers of the Clearing-IIouse banks was called for the 
next day at the American Exchange Banking-house. At 
this meeting both Mr. Chase and Mr. Cisco were present. 
A protracted discussion took place, and there was some 
earnest opposition to the proposition. Mr. Stevens, of 
the Bank of Commerce, and Mr. Tayloe, of the City 
Bank, favored it, but Mr. Gallatin, of the National 
Bank, vehemently opposed it. Mr. Knapp, of the Me- 
chanics' Bank, said that, if the obligations of the Govern- 
ment should become worthless, the property of the banks 
would become so too. Finally, after the meeting had 
lasted several hours, a resolution was adopted to accept 
substantially the terms proposed by the Secretar3\ 

After the adjournment of the meeting, Mr. Chase said 
to Mr. Cisco, "Well, we have fifty millions, but how 
about the next fifty ?" " The banks will take them," 
answered Mr. Cisco ; " do you not see that they have 
stepped into the same boat with you ?" " And will they 
also take the last fifty ?" asked the Secretar3^ " They will 
lend you another fifty millions ; but then will come the 
suspension of specie payments," answered his subordi- 
nate. " Xever, while I am Secretary of the Treasury !" 
was the confident reply. 

The banks, after disposing of the first fifty millions 



THE GOVERNMENT IN DIFFICULTIES. 257 

of Treasury notes, availed themselves of their privilege 
to take another like amount of them. They afterward 
refused to advance any more money against these notes, 
but agreed to take fifty millions in six per cent, bonds, 
redeemable after twenty years, at a rate that equalized 
them to similar seven per cent, bonds. 

On Saturday, December the thirtieth, 1861, the banks 
decided to suspend specie payments on Monday, January 
the first, 1862. They, earned their resolution into effect, 
and the Governmen)^ simultaneously adopted the same 
course in respect to its ordinary disbursements. 

The Government was again in straits to pay its inter- 
est' on the public debt. There were demand notes out 
to the amount of sixty millions of dollars ; and as these 
were receivable at the Custom-IIouse the same as gold, 
and did not command so high a premium, duties on im- 
ports were almost exclusively paid in them, and little or 
wo specie was received. About the same time, too, the 
principal of the " Texas Indemnity Bonds" fell due, and 
although the amount of them was small — say two or three 
millions — the embarrassment was by so much increased. 
"Pay both principal and interest in paper!" said the 
Secretary. It is easy to see what the effect of such a 
course w^ould have been. It was of vital importance to 
continue to pay in coin both the interest and the prin- 
cipal of the public debt as they matured. 

At this time the banks had large stores of gold in their 
vaults for which they had no use. Mr. Cisco proposed 
to borrow it from them. Mr. Chasc did not believe that 
they would lend it at all, or, if at all, only upon extortion- 
ate terms. Mr. Cisco succeeded in borrowing all that 
was wanted at the rate oifour j)er cent, jper annum, on 



258 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

notes payable on ten days' notice after thirty days. Mr. 
Chase only consented to this arrangement on the Satur- 
day preceding the Monday on which the bonds and the 
interest fell due. I remember that the Park Bank lent 
us a million. A few days afterward, and after the 
money had been used, the President of that institution 
became frightened, and, coming to the Treasury, asked 
to have his coin returned. Mr. Cisco told him to imme- 
diately send down his carts to receive it. This rather 
staggered him, for he had expected a flat refusal, and he 
then made up his mind to let the matter stand over till 
the morrow, w^hen he could consult his directors. The 
next day he returned and said, " I shall leave it for the 
present." But he was told that he must choose between 
adhering to the terms of his agreement and removing his 
specie at once. He decided to do the former. 

An enormous amount in paper on deposit as a tempo- 
rary loan upon the foregoing conditions was afterward 
procured. The money accumulated as in a savings bank. 
This gave the Government the use of a hundred millions 
of dollars. 

At one time the banks came very near failing on pa- 
per. The Treasury was then full of money. We gave 
them what they needed, and took their certified checks 
in return. 

Nearly ninety per cent, of all the early loans negoti- 
ated were taken in ]N"ew York. The Seven-thirty notes 
became very popular. The Treasury acted as the agent 
of the banks in disposing of tliem to the public. There 
were also private agents appointed for the same purpose. 
All classes of society, and persons of both sexes, came to 
subscribe for them. I remember that a hackney coach- 



ANY THING FOB MONEY. 259 

man left liis carriage at the door, and came rushing in 
to ns with a hundred dollars in his hand for a note of 
that denomination. A clergyman wrote from a West- 
ern city that he desired to do every thing within his 
power to support the Government, but that he had no 
money. He had, however, a very good horse, and he re- 
quested to be informed whether we could not give him 
a hundred-dollar Seven-thirty Treasury note for it. 

As soon as specie payments were suspended, small sil- 
ver change disappeared from circulation with marvelous 
rapidity. Postage - stamps came into use in its place. 
They were a most inconvenient and disgusting substitute 
for the metal which the public had been accustomed to, 
and as soon as possible they were replaced by what lias 
ever since been known as "Fractional Currencj'." For a 
long time this currency could not be produced with suf- 
ficient rapidity to meet the popular demand. The im- 
portunities of the people for it were like petitions for 
charity. 

During all the time that I was in the Kew York branch 
of the Treasury, in addition to the official correspond- 
ence, one or more letters, some semi-official and some al- 
together confidential, passed daily between the Secretaiy 
and the Assistant Treasurer. If those letters could be 
published, they would furnish the most interesting page 
in the financial history of the war. They contain a free 
discussion of every expedient presented, and the record 
of every purpose formed. 1 am proud to say that never 
upon a single occasion did a Government financial secret 
pass the four walls of the Treasury building until com- 
municated to the entire community. That institution 
was the despair of the speculators. ISTo pump applied 
there ever drew water. 



2g0 MEMORIES OF MANY 3IEK 

The Government building on Wall Street hitherto em- 
ployed as the Treasury soon ceased to furnish the nec- 
essary accommodations and security for the ever expand- 
ino- business of the office. An arrano-emeut was finallv 
effected, involving some complicated negotiations, where- 
by the Treasury was transferred to the Custom-IIouse, 
at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, and the Cus- 
tom-IIouse removed to the Merchants' Exchange build- 
ing, where it still is. Mr. Barney, tlie Collector, was 
very unwilling to be disturbed. The Government hired 
the Exchange building for three years, at an annual rent 
of sixty or sixty-five thousand dollars, ^\\i\\ the privilege 
of buying it for a million of dollars at any time during 
the term. When the time was about to expire, Mr. Fes- 
SENDEN was Secretary of the Treasury, and it was with 
some difficulty that he was induced to recommend the 
purchase to Congress. lie did so, however ; the neces- 
sary Act was passed, and the matter consummated. I 
presume that the ground alone is now worth three mill- 
ions of dollars. 

During the riots of July, 1863, very grave apprehen- 
sions were entertained lest an organized attempt should 
be made to sack the Treasury. Accordingly cs'ery thing 
was prepared to resist an attack. Arms were distributed 
to all tlie employes, and hand-grenades and carboys of 
vitriol were placed at every window. There was a mili- 
tary guard of raw troops about the building nearly all 
the time, but we apprehended more danger from it than 
from the rioters. We kept a loaded mitrailleuse facing 
the Pine Street entrance, and we had two field-j^ieces 
worked by gunners from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A 
battery of artillery was kept upon Nassau Street, and 



THE GREAT DRAFT RIOT. 261 

there was a gun-boaf lying at the foot of Wall Street 
with shotted guns commanding the street. All through 
the nights there were mounted pickets stationed at the 
doors, principally for communication with the Custom- 
Ilouse; and we had relays of confidential agents all 
over the city, watching the movements of the rioters. 
When one evening they surged down Greenwich Street, 
destroying every thing that came in their way, we 
thought that they were making for us. Had they come, 
they would have met with a warm reception. The 
chances are very great that they would never have suc- 
ceeded in penetrating into the building, and, if they had 
done so, it is certain that they would have failed to get 
access to the treasure, then very large in amount, con- 
tained in the vaults. But they deemed it prudent, after 
learning the preparation made to receive them, to keep 
away ; and we came off free of cost, except the expense 
of provisioning so large a number of men as we had 
there all the time. 

In those trying times the civil servants of the Govern- 
ment suffered as well as the military, and the desk had 
its martyrs as well as the field. Incessant labors from 
early morning till late at night, and sometimes all night, 
with overwhelming responsibility and anxiety, were hard- 
ly less fatal than the enemy's guns. 

In the summer of the year 1863, the Hon. George 
Haeeington, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, 
broke down completely in health, and by the advice of 
his physicians determined to seek repose and relaxation 
by withdrawing for a time from public affairs and vis- 
iting Europe. In this emergency, Secretaey Chase in- 
vited me to Washington. 



CHAPTER IX. 

IENTEEED upon my new duties as Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury upon the first day of October, 
1863, and continued in the discharge of them, under Sec- 
retaries Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch, until the first 
of July, 1865, when, with impaired strength and energy, 
I was transferred by Pkesident Johnson, at my own re- 
quest, to a Federal ofiice in the city of New York. 

On the morning of the Sunday succeeding that of my 
arrival at "Washington, I, in company with Mr. Chase, 
attended service at the St. John's Episcopal Church. 
Mr. Sewakd occupied the pew directly in front of us. 
On our walk homeward, Mr. Chase spoke to me in ex- 
tremely kind terms of the Secretary of State, saying 
that, since they had been associated together as mem- 
bers of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, he had learned to esteem 
and respect him much more than he had done in former 
years in the Senate. I soon after had an occasion to 
repeat these remarks to Mr. Sewaed, to whom the re- 
cital seemed to afford much gratification. He referred, 
in turn, to Mr. Chase's handsome conduct in resigning 
his seat in the Cabinet immediately after he had him- 
self temporarily withdrawn from it under pressure from 
the Senate, and the embarrassment from which this con- 
siderate action of his colleague had relieved both the 
President and himself. From that time forward my 
personal relations with Mr. Sewaed became quite inti- 



ME. SEWARD. 263 

mate. I used frequently to meet him socially at tlie ta- 
bles of the foreign Ministers, and I often visited him at 
his own house. The latter was particularly the case 
during the months of July and August in the year 1864. 
The intense heat had depleted "Washington, driving from 
the city every body except those officials Avho found 
it impossible to get away. The great Bedouin camp 
had struck its tents for a season. One's evening visiting 
list thus became very much circumscribed, and Secee- 
TARY Seward's house w^as one of the few where one 
could call with any probability of finding the master at 
home. At this time I often passed uninterrupted hours 
in his company. I frequently found him swinging in a 
hammock, which was slung upon the back porch, and 
smoking the inevitable cigar of portentous size and 
strength. As a smoker, Mr. Seward was in no way be- 
hind General Grant. Sometimes, however, our inter- 
views took place in the front parlor. The conversation 
was always of the most unreserved and familiar charac- 
ter. Upon one occasion, I remarked to the Secretary 
that I supposed he had kept a diary, or at least memo- 
randa, of every thing that had occurred at Cabinet meet- 
ings since the incoming of the Administration. He told 
me, in reply, that during several months in the begin- 
ning he had very faithfully done so ; but that vei-y soon 
the personal relations between some of his colleagues be- 
came so inharmonious, and so much unworthy bickering, 
and even quarreling, was indulged in upon these occa- 
sions, that he discontinued making a record, and de- 
stroyed the notes which he had already taken. He 
said that a truthful statement of these occurrences, if 
ever published, would bring disgrace upon the country, 



264 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK 

and that they had better be buried in oblivion. Mr. 
Seward expressed the very higliest opinion of Mr. Lin- 
coln as a politician. Indeed, I think it must be con- 
ceded by all who liad intimate opportunities to study 
that remarkable man, that Mr. Lincoln was the most con- 
summate politician that this country has yet produced, 
except perhaps his great rival, Stephen A. Douglas. He 
was in politics what the Lo7idon Times is in journalism 
— never leading public opinion, but always following its 
wave so closely that, when it breaks, it is found swim- 
ming upon the crest. To the unobservant he appeared 
to lead, whereas he only followed. He had an unerring 
and rapid perception of the popular will, and the policy 
which he from time to time adopted was but the crys- 
tallization of that will. 

Mr. Seward told me the story of the Emancipation 
Proclamation, and, as he related it, it was strikingly il- 
lustrative of this characteristic of Mr. Lincoln. Months 
before it was issued, it was the subject of constant dis- 
cussion at the meetings of the Cabinet. Day after day 
the most earnest and acrimonious debates took place in 
relation to the propriety or impropriety of the Pj-esident 
issuing such a proclamation. Although an attentive list- 
ener to these discussions of his Secretaries, Mr. Lincoln 
did not take an acti^^e part in them. So much was this the 
case that several, at least, of his advisers were very un- 
certain as to what his ultimate determination upon the 
subject would be. So bitter did the controversy grow, 
that it resulted, after a time, not only in a breach of 
personal, and to some extent even official relations be- 
tween certain of the Cabinet officers, but eventually 
even in a prolonged discontinuance of Cabinet meet- 



THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 265 

ings. During the interregnum matters which had been 
usually discussed and disposed of at such meetings had 
to be settled by inter-departmental correspondence. One 
of the other Secretaries, with the obvions purpose of mi- 
noying — I nse a mild word — Mr. Chase, addressed sever- 
al very important official communications directly to me, 
ignoring the head of the Department. This condition 
of tilings lasted until one day Mr. Sewakd received an 
autographic letter from the President requesting him to 
attend, without fail, a meeting of the Cabinet which he 
proposed to hold on the morrow. All the other Secre- 
taries received similar letters, and not one of them knew 
or entertained any confident conjecture about the par- 
ticular purpose for which they were called together. At 
the appointed time Mr. Lincoln waited until they were 
all assembled, having been unusually reticent to the first 
comers. lie then addressed them somewhat as follows : 
" Gentlemen, I have asked you to come here that I may 
have the opportunity of reading to you a proclamation 
which I am about to issue. Before proceeding to read 
it, however, I desire to say that not only do I not in- 
vite any discussion about the propriety or impropriety 
of its issue, but that I am ^nnoilling to listen to any. 
My mind is made up. On the contrary, as to matters 
of form, I wish you all to make any suggestions that 
may occur to you." He then drew from his pocket a 
manuscript, and to the amazement of some, if not of all, 
there assembled, proceeded to read the Emancijjation 
Proclamation. When he had finished, for a while no- 
body spoke. Mr. Sewakd was the first to break the 
silence, and to recommend a verbal alteration. Mr. Lest- 
coLN adopted it without a word of objection. Other 

M 



2GG MEMORIEH OF 31 ANT 3IEN. 

gentlemen suggested further changes. Mr. Lincoln ac- 
cepted them all without discussion. When nobody had 
any more suggestions to make, the meeting broke up, 
and the Ministers soon dispersed. The next day the 
emancipation from slavery of four millions of human 
beings in the United States was published to the world. 
Mr. Lincoln had waited until the people were ripe for it ; 
and what he had at first looked upon as inopportune, he 
had at last regarded as expedient and necessary. 

Mr. Sewakd's version of how Mr. Stanton came into 
the Cabinet afforded another illustration in point. For 
a long time the maladministration and non-administra- 
tion of the War Department had been a matter of the most 
serious concern to Mr. Sewaed and several of his col- 
leagues. At one time, with the hope of relief, some of 
the duties of that Department were transferred to the 
State Department, and later others were turned over to 
the Treasury Department. But, notwithstanding this, 
the conduct of the War Department was constantly be- 
coming worse and worse. The most serious apprehen- 
sions were entertained by those members of the Cabinet 
who conversed together upon the subject; but none of 
them ventured to call Mr. Lincoln's attention to so deli- 
cate a matter. They were, nevertheless, both surprised 
and distressed at his apparent blindness or indifference 
to so obvious and momentous an evil. "While things 
were in this condition," said Mr. Sewaed, " there was a 
ring at my door-bell one evening, and, as soon as the serv- 
ant had answered it, the President walked into the room. 
He sat down by me on this sofa upon wdiich we are now 
sitting, and abruptly commenced talking about the con- 
dition of the War Department. He soon made it ap])ar- 



MR. STANTON. 2G7 

ent that he had all along observed and known as much 
about it as any of us, if not more, and that he liad 
been np to that time restrained from taking decisive 
action, both because he hoped for an amendment in its 
administration, and because he had a natural reluctance 
to sever intimate official relations with a gentleman who 
had been one of his competitors for the Presidential 
nomination. However, his mind was now settled, and 
he had come to consult me about a successor to Mr. Cam- 
EKON." Mr. Stanton's name was introduced. I can not 
now recollect whether Mr. Sewakd said that it was first 
mentioned by Mr. Lincoln or by himself. At all e\ents, 
it was very favorably considered by both, and, after some 
later negotiations, the War portfolio was tendered to 
and accepted by that gentleman. Mr. Sewakd told nie 
that he believed that at the time of the conversation 
just referi'ed to Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton had never 
met, except upon the occasion, years before, when they 
were together employed in a lawsuit in Cincinnati, and 
when Mr. Stanton so unmercifully snubbed his as- 
sociate that the latter withdrew in disgust from the 
case. 

I take the following extract from one of the little 
diaries in which Mr. Chase was accustomed to jot down 
daily occurrences and transcribe some of his most secret 
thoughts. He wrote with a pencil, and, as he was in the 
habit of carrying these books loose in his pocket, much 
of the writing is wholly or partly obliterated. I have, 
however, been able to make out the following, but not 
without a great deal of difficulty : 

" 1862, January 12th. — At church in the morning. Good, plain 
sermon. Wished much to join in commimion, but felt myself too 



2GS MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

subject to temptation to sin. After cliurcli went to see CiUiERON 
by appointment ; but being obliged to meet the President, etc., at 
one, could only excuse myself. At President's found Generals 
McDowell, Franklin, and Meigs, and Sewakd and Blair. 
Meigs decided against dividing forces, and in flivor of battle in 
front. President said McClellan's health was much improved, 
and thought it best to adjourn till to-morrow, and have all then 
present attend with McC. at three. Home, and talk and read- 
ing. Dinner. Cameron came in. Advised loan in Holland, and 
recommended Brooks, Lewis, and another whom I have forgotten. 
Then turned to Department matters, and we talked of his going to 
Russia and Stanton as successor, and he j^roposed I should again 
see the President. I first proposed seeing Seward, to which he 
assented. He declared himself determined to maintain himself 
at the head of his Department if he remained, and to resist here- 
after all interference. I told him I would in that event stand by 
him faithfully. He and I drove to WillarcVs, where I left him, 
and went myself to Seward's. I told him at once what was 
in my mind — that I thought the President and Cameron were 
both willing that C. should go to Russia. He seemed to receive 
the matter as new, ezcejit so far as suggested by me last night. 
Wanted to know who would succeed Cajieron. I said Holt and 
Stanton had been named ; that I feared Holt might embarrass 
us on the slavery question, and might not prove quite equal to the 
emergency ; that Stanton was a good lawyer and full of energy ; 
but I could not, of course, judge him as an executive officer as well 
as he (S.) could, for he knew him when he was in Buchanan's Cab- 
inet. Seward replied that he saw much of him then ; that he was 
of great force — full of expedients, and thoroughly loyal. Finally 
he agreed to the whole thing, and j^romised to go with me to talk 
with the President about it to-morrow. Just at this point Cam- 
eron came in with a letter from the President proposing his nomi- 
nation to Russia in the morning ! He was quite offended, sup- 
posing the letter intended as a dismissal, and, therefore, discour- 
teous. We both assured him it could not be so. Finally he con- 
cluded to retain the letter till morning, and then go and see the 
President. Seward was expecting General Butler, and Cam- 



MR. CEASE'S DIARY. 269 

ERON said lie ought to be sent oflF immediately. I said, ' Well, let's 
leave Sewaed to order liim off at once.' C. laughed, and we went 
off together, I taking him to his house. Before parting, I told him 
what had passed between me and Seward concerning Stanton, 
with which he was gratified. I advised him to go to the President 
in the morning, express his thanks for the consideration with which 
his wishes, made known through me as well as by himself orally, 
had been treated, and tell him frankly how desirable it was to him 
that his successor should be a Peunsylvauian, and should be Stan- 
ton. I said I thought that his wish, supported as it would be by 
Seward and myself, would certainly be gratified, and told him 
that the President had already mentioned Stanton in a way which 
indicated that no objection on his j)art would be made. I said 
also that, if he wished, I would see Seward, and would go to the 
President after he had left him, and urge the point. He asked 
why not come in when he should be there, and I assented to this. 
We parted, and I came home. A day which may have — and 
seemingly must have — great bearing on affairs. Oh, that my heart 
and life were so pure and right before God that I might not hurt 
our great cause ! I fear Mr. Seward may think Cameron's com- 
ing into his house pre-arranged, and that I was not dealing frank- 
ly. I feel satisfied, however, that I have acted right, and with just 
deference to all concerned, and have in no resjiect deviated from 
the truth." 

There is more upon the same subject in the book, but, 
unfortunately, it can not be deciphered with any cer- 
tainty. 

Since copying the foregoing, I have been informed 
upon excellent authority that the President's letter to 
Mr. Cameron was very brief, and that the following was 
the exact language that he used: "I have made up my 
mind to accept your resignation, and tender you the mis- 
sion to St. Petersburg." That this was all. That Mr. 
Cameeon, though he had talked of resigning, had made 
neither a written nor verbal offer to do so. Now was 



270 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

Mr. Camekon justified or not in considering this a dis- 
missal?'^ My informant, whose communication is in 
writing, continues as follows : 

" Four months before tliis,t Mr. Lincoln expressed a probable 
intention to make changes in two Dci)artments, but certainly in 
one — the War Department. Mr. Stanton, at that time a resident 
of Washington, contemplated removing to New York ; but a com- 
munication having been made to him from an entkely trustworthy 
source that Mr. Lincoln would regard his removal from Washing- 
ton as inopportune, coupled with an intimation that he w^ould 
probably soon be wanted in an important position under the Ad- 
ministration, he remained in the Federal city. The President's 
long delay in making sign in fulfillment of his expectations 
angered Stanton, and within a very few days before his appoint- 
ment he said bitter things not only of the Rejiublicans generally, 
but of Mr. Lincoln personally. Mr. Lincoln, in explaining the 
grounds of the intended change in the War Department, referred 
in severe terms to Mr. Camekon's bad management, saying, among 
other things, that when absent from Washington he had given 
telegraphic orders for the transfer of troojDs and munitions of war, 
of which no record had been made in the Dejjartment. Serious 
embarrassment and confusion had resulted. The President ex- 
pressed disapprobation also^of some of Mr. Cameron's personal 
affiliations." 

It may not be generally known, but it is nevertheless 
true, that Mr. Seward entertained great admiration and 
a most sincere regard for General Geokge B. McClel- 
LAN, or " Geoege," as Mr. Lincoln used familiarly and 
affectionately to call him. Once, when speaking of the 
General, Mr. Seward told me that he considered him one 

* It is well knowai that Mr. Cajieron took Mr. Lincoln's letter 
so much to heart that Mr. Chase was induced to take it back to 
the President, whom he persuaded to substitute for it another let- 
ter containing expressions of regret and of compliment. 

t This happened in September, 18G1, in the early part of the 
mont'.i. 



GENERAL McCLELLAK 2Y1 

of the most forbearing, self-controlled, and patient men 
whom he had ever known. He only remembered a single 
occasion npon which he displayed an implacable feeling 
of resentment. This was after his rnpture with Mr. 
Stanton, and his retirement from the command of the 
Army of the Potomac. The rebel invaders were pour- 
ing North, and the battle which is known to ns by 
the name of "Antietam" was to be fonglit. There 
was a panic in Washington, and, after much consid- 
eration, it was determined to invite Geneeal McClel- 
LAN to again head our forces. Mr. Sewakd was se- 
lected to convey the invitation to him and urge its ac- 
ceptance. To his surprise and disappointment, he at first 
found " George " inexorable. He felt that Mr. Stanton 
had treated him with too much injustice to permit him 
to accept the offer consistently with his own self-respect. 
For a long time he would not recede from his refusal, 
and it was only after repeated urging by Mr. Sewakd 
that he was induced to undertake to fight the one battle, 
it being, however, distinctly understood that there should 
be no personal reconciliation between himself and the 
Secretary of War. 

At the dinner-parties of the foreign Ministers, whicli 
Mr. Sewaed, being Secretary of State, frequently at- 
tended, he was looked upon as rather a tedious guest. 
Speaking no language but English, he compelled the 
conversation to be carried on in a tongue which was not 
familiar to many of those usually present. 

Mr, Sewaed told me that soon after his first election 
as Governor of the State of New York, he had occasion 
to make a short journey from Albany by stage-coach^ 
The day was fine, and he asked the driver's permission 



272 ME3I0RIES OF MANY MEN. 

to mount the box and occupy a seat by bis side. This 
favor was griiniblingly granted by Jehn, who was en- 
tirely unacquainted with the Governor's person. Mr. 
Sewaed endeavored to propitiate him by presenting to 
him a choice cigar; the ice soon thawed, and they en- 
tered into an earnest conversation. After a wliile the 
coachman turned to him, and abruptly asked him who 
he was. Mr. Seward replied that people called him the 
Governor of New York. This was met by his compan- 
ion with a laugh of incredulity. Mr. Sewakd then said 
that they could not proceed far without meeting some- 
body who knew him, who would confirm his statement. 
Presently they came up to a person on foot, with whom 
Mr. Sewaed was acquainted, and he requested the driver 
to stop the coach. Hailing the man at the side of the 
road, Mr. Sewaed told him that his identity had been 
questioned, and asked him if he was not, in fact, the 
Governor. " Certainly not," was the unexpected answer. 
" Pray, then, who is V asked the astonished statesman. 
" Why, Thuelow Weed, of course," was the promj)t re- 
ply. Mr. Sewaed laughed over the story as if the scene 
were still vividly before him. 

I have mentioned that at one time there was an abso- 
lute discontinuance of Cabinet meetings, and that during 
that period very important matters, which were usually 
disposed of at such meetings, became the subject of cor- 
respondence between the several Departments. A very 
protracted and very able correspondence passed between 
the Treasury and the ISTavy Departments in relation to 
certain regulations issued by the former, affecting what 
was called "restricted trade." The Navy objected to 
these regulations, whose enforcement, it was claimed, 



3IR. WELLES. 273 

would tend to interfere with an efficient blockade. On 
our side, Mr. Chase himself wrote every letter, and it is 
needless to say that they were very ably written. The 
letters from the Navy Department were, however, to say 
the least, equally able; and I could not help feeling that 
we were even a little overmatched in the controversy. 
Fox, the Assistant Secretary, we all said must have writ- 
ten those letters ; they conld have no other author. But 
it afterward turned out that they had been written by 
the Secretary, Mr. Welles, and that neither Mr. Fox nor 
any body else had even been consulted about them. 
This circumstance greatly raised my estimate of Mr. 
Welles; and from my subsequent intercourse with him 
I became convinced that he was one of the ablest, and 
in every respect one of the best of Mr. Lincoln's imme- 
diate advisers. The country lias never done him any 
thing like justice. His patriarchal looks, his immense 
wig, his flowing beard, and his somewhat stolid man- 
ners, and the names of "Father Welles" and "Noak" 
applied to him by the slang talkers and writers of the 
day, created an altogether false impression of him in the 
public mind. Whenever I had occasion to call upon him 
officially, I always found him, perhaps to a greater de- 
gree than any of his associates, well up in all the details 
of the Department over which he presided. His per- 
sonal management of its affairs was intelligent, thorough, 
and efficient. More, perhaps, than any other of his col- 
leagues, he was given to minding his own business, and 
in the discharge of duty he was as inflexible as an old 
Eoman. 

It affords me pleasure to have here the opportunity to 
pay a brief tribute to a public officer who has, apparently, 

^l 2 



2Y4 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

been so little appreciated by a country wliicli be so in- 
telligently and so faitbfully served. 

I think that, all tbings considered, Mr. Chase sbould be 
rated first among the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. 
In intellectual greatness, he certainly was the foremost. I 
have so many reasons for affectionate regard for him and 
for devotion to his memory, that, however truthful a wit- 
ness, I know that I am liable to be considered a partial oue. 
That Mr. Chase, as a financial minister, fell into occa- 
sional errors, I am the. last person in the world to dispute. 
But who is there that in those terribly difllcult times 
would not have fallen into them ? He always had the 
good sense, which has not been common to all his suc- 
cessors, to constantly consult with those who had more 
practical experience than he himself possessed ; and, ex- 
cept his great fundamental mistake at the commence- 
ment, he probably made as few as would have been made 
by any other person in his place. 



CHAPTEE X. 

UNTIL the winter of 18G1-2, Congress could not be 
induced to take np the subject of internal taxes. 
For the first year, the war was conducted without a reve- 
nue ; for the import duties liad fallen to a sum scarcely 
adequate to peace expenditures. When the committees of 
Congress went to work, Mr. Chase determined to prepare 
also, on his part, a scheme of internal taxation. To assist 
him, at the suggestion of Mr. Cisco, he invited to Wash- 
ington the Hon. John D. Van Bueen, a distinguished 
citizen of New York, of opposite politics to his own. Mr. 
Van Buken remained two months at the capital, as a 
volunteer nnpaid attache of the Treasury Department, 
in daily consultation with the Secretary. Some time be- 
fore the Committee of Ways and Means had its Bill 
ready to report, Mr. Van Bueen completed one for Mr. 
Chase, levying taxes which, it was estimated, would yield 
over two hundred millions of dollars per annum. No in- 
come tax was included, Mr. Van Bueen, after examin- 
ing the decisions, coming to the conclusion that it was a 
direct tax, and therefore unconstitutional unless levied 
upon each state in proportion to population ; in which 
view Mr. Chase at that time acquiesced. This Bill was 
examined and, in some details, corrected by Mr. Chase, 
and sent by him to the Committee of Ways and Means ; 
but his note, accompanying it, w^as not so worded as to 
make it absolutely his own measure. The Committee 



276 MEMORIES OF MANY MEX. 

had already made progress in. but had not completed, a 
scheme of its own. The advance sheets of its Bill, fur- 
nished to the Treasury Department, showed that it pro- 
ceeded upon the theory of taxing every thing under the 
sun. The Bill submitted by Mr. Chase had only ten or 
fifteen separate subjects of taxation. Under it the num- 
ber of officials and the expense of collection would have 
been much less than under that of the Committee. One 
illustration will suffice on this point. The Bill submit- 
ted by the Secretary levied a tax of half a cent a mile 
on railroad ])assengers ; which would have yielded a large 
revenue, the amount of which could be accurately esti- 
mated by the statistics given in the railroad report of 
the State Engineer of New York, and the reports of 
some other states ; and all of wliich tax would have been 
collected by the railroads at the same time with their 
own fai'es. So a tax of one cent was proposed on every 
passenger by horse-railroads and ferries. This would 
have yielded a very considerable revenue — several mill- 
ions of dollars. The Committee did levy a tax on horse- 
railroads and ferries, but put it down to about one third 
of a cent. The ferries and railroads charged an addi- 
tional cent to their passengers, but two thirds of this 
went into their private treasuries. Another tax of the 
same nature, cheap of collection, served to illustrate a 
kind of patriotism that was very common in those days. 
All the moneyed interests were clamorous for taxation, 
but every body wanted the taxes laid on every body else 
than themselves. It was proposed to tax consumers of 
illuminating gas fifty cents a thousand cubic feet, to be 
collected with the monthly bills of the gas companies. 
This brought a swarm of presidents of gas companies 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF TAXATION. 277 

from every quarter to Wasliington. They were loud and 
inianimous in their admissions that the Government must 
provide for itself an abundant revenue, but insisted tliat 
such a tax as this would bring absolute ruin on the gas 
companies. One of them from New York never for- 
o-ave Mr. Yan Buren for not being convinced by his ar- 
guments that, under such a tax, all the gas-consumers 
would go back at once to the use of tallow candles. 

Avery valuable suggestion was made by Mr, Bigelow, 
of Boston, the well-known inventor of the carpet-loom. 
It was that all the internal taxes should be collected not 
in money, but in Government stamps ; that the Treasury 
should issue stamps of various denominations up to a 
thousand dollars, good only in payment of taxes ; and 
that the tax-payer should simply return his tax-bill to 
the Collector, with the necessary amount of canceled 
stamps affixed to it. This would have had many advan- 
tages. It would have reduced greatly the machinery 
and the number of officials to be engaged in collecting 
the taxes, and it would have secured the Treasury abso- 
lutely against losses by the dishonesty of its agents. 
There would have been no handling of money except at 
the sub-Treasuries, where, at wholesale, the stamps were 
to be sold, Avith an allowance to compensate the retail 
sellers. Moreover, the Treasury would thus have received 
its revenue always in advance. This proposal of Mr. 
Bigelow was accepted by Mr. Yan Buren, and urged 
by him upon Mr. Chase. It may be doubted, however, 
whether there was any desire among members of Con- 
gress to keep down the number of officials to be created 
under the new tax system. The more offices, the more 
home patronage for eacli Kepresentative. 



278 3LEM0IiIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

The Committee of Congress had become attached to 
its own scheme, and adhered to it. It was manifestly 
anxious to make the taxes light, and hoped to do so by 
scattering them upon all things. Some of its members, 
in conversation, laughed at the tax of fifty cents a gallon 
on whisky, proposed in the Bill submitted by Mr. Chase, 
as being absm-dly heavy; their own Bill levying only 
about one fourth as much. Yet, in a year or two. Congress 
went to the other extreme, and put the tax at two dollars 
a gallon, giving rise, by excessive temptation, to an or- 
ganized system of whisky frauds. The Committee ex- 
pected that its Bill would yield a revenue of nearly 
two hundred millions of dollars ; the most moderate es- 
timate among the members was one hundred and sixty 
millions of dollars. Mr.YAN Bueen was urged by some 
of them to estimate its results, and he put them down as 
not exceeding sixty millions of dollars net. The returns 
for the year showed, I believe, about seventy millions of 
dollars gross. 

The same mistake was made by Mr. Chase and by 
Congress as that which Mr. Pitt confessed he had made 
in the Napoleonic wars. Heavy taxes should have been 
imposed at the outset. The people were ready for taxa- 
tion, but their agents were timid. We resorted to all 
sorts of expedients, bringing ruin upon our credit ; and 
then had at last to come to the same amount of taxation 
which, if laid in the beginning, would have kept our 
credit always high. With the example and the confes- 
sion of Mr. Pitt before us, our public men were less ex- 
cusable than he. A tax of two hundred millions of dol- 
lars, levied in the first year of the war, would, in Mr. Van 
Bueen's opinion, have enabled us to borrow freely and 



MR. CHASE. 279 

to keep lip sjjecie payments ; would have served, by the 
demonstration of our strength, as a warning to foreign 
powers disposed to meddle ; would have discouraged the 
enemy, compelled themselves to resort at the outset to 
irredeemable paper money ; and would have greatly 
shortened the contest. It would have avoided, probably, 
two thirds of our public debt. From how much demor- 
alization and sin it would have saved us is beyond calcu- 
lation. 

It was, at the outbreak of the Rebellion, the opinion of 
the venerable Azakiaii C. Flagg, formerly Comptroller 
of the State of New York, that the Government could 
afford to expend one thousand millions a year and yet 
maintain specie payments. Our annual expenditures, 
even when measured by depreciated paper money, did 
not come up to this. 

The French proverb that " no man is a hero to his 
valet de cliamhre^'' has a wider significance than it ex- 
presses. It means that the great become little to those 
who are intimately associated with them. I have come 
into contact with many of those wdiom the world calls 
great, and, after a personal acquaintance with them, have 
found them very small. But, in the case of Mr. Chase, 
1 can honestly and sincerely say that, after the closest re- 
lations with him, both official and private, daring a period 
of time which tried men's brains as well as their souls, 
I parted from him with a higher appreciation of his mag- 
nificent mind and character than I entertained when I 
only knew him as one of the leaders of the land. lie 
had conspicuous weaknesses, but they only served to 
throw his great qualities into more prominent relief. 

We all remember the movement that was made, pre- 



2 so MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

vions to Mr. Lincoln's second nomination at Baltimore, 
to bring Mr. CiixVSE forward as a competing candidate. 
That Mr. Chase was himself in nowise reluctant can not 
be denied, although I know that he all along doubted 
that such a movement had any chance of success. In 
those days he failed to appreciate Mr. Lincoln at his true 
value, as, I think, Mr. Lincoln failed to appreciate him. 
Indeed, it would be impossible to imagine two men more 
unlike, and having fewer points of contact. Mr. Lincoln, 
at least, was entirely deiicient in what the phrenologists 
call reverence. Ko man wdio ever lived could be in his 
presence and doimnate him, as the French express it. 
There is a certain sort of intellectual atmosphere differ- 
ent from, if not higher than that in which he moved, and 
he troubled himself very little about it, or about those 
who dwelt in it. At any rate, he instinctively conceded 
nothing of superiority to any body, and often failed to 
comprehend those whose mental plane was different from 
his own. Mr. Chase honestly felt his superiority to Mr. 
Lincoln in some respects, and could not be reconciled to 
his undignified manners and strange ways. While the 
movement to bring Mr. Chase forward as a Presiden- 
tial candidate w^as in agitation, a United States Senator, 
who actively participated in it, one day came into my of- 
fice in a towering rage. Striking his fist upon my desk, 

he said to me that he considered Chase the (using a 

very strong expletive) fool in the world. He then w^ent 
on to tell me that he and others had been unsuccessfully 
laboring with the Secretary to induce him to issue a 
" cotton permit " to somebody, precisely as he would issue 
one to any respectable person ; only that the profits were 
to be applied in the interest of his nomination, instead of 



SCOLDING DIGNITARIES. 281 

going into private pockets. There was an ainonnt of 
principle and delicacy involved in Mr. Chase's refusal 
which the Senatorial mind utterly failed to appreciate. 

When speaking of Mr. Chase's Presidential aspirations, 
I am reminded, as Mr. Lincoln used to say, of a little 
story. When I first went to Washington, the Secretary 
occupied for his ofiice a room on the south side of the 
Treasury building, with a beautiful outlook dowm the 
Potomac. Soon afterward it was proposed that he should 
remove to certain elaborately ornamented and elegantly 
furnished rooms on the west side of the building, which 
had been arranged for his occupation by Mr. Mullett, the 
architect of the Department. Mr. Chase had consented 
to make the change ; but after the new rooms were 
ready he delayed removing. Several times he appointed 
a day to do so, but when the time came he had changed 
his mind. One afternoon, while he was still hesitating, 
I was standing with him at one of the windows of the 
largest of the new rooms which faced the Executive 
Mansion. Turning to me, he asked me to assign one 
sufficient reason why he should change his quarters. I 
told him that there was at least one obvious advantage 
in the exchange, and that was, if he should come to 
these offices, he would always he ahle to heep his eye 
li^on the White House! 

Mr. Chase was a man of extremely nervous tempera- 
ment, and he would sometimes be A'ery violent, and oc- 
casionally even unjust, while swept by a gale of passion. 
On one occasion Senator Fessenden came into my room 
in a terrible rage, occasioned by a scolding which he 
had received from the Secretary. Goveknok Beough, 
of Ohio, visited Washington in the year 1864, and being 



2S2 MEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

an experienced railroad man and familiar with the cost 
of transportation, explained to Mr. Chase the fearful ex- 
travagance of the Quartermaster's Department in the 
West. Mr. Stanton, unfortunately for himself, happen- 
ed to come into the Secretary's room shortly after the 
Governor had left it, when he received such a verbal 
castio-ation at the hands of Mr. Chase as few men would 
have ventured to inflict upon the great War Seca-etary. 
What was more remarkable, however, he bore it- with 
great meekness. 

But Mr. Chase was always just after the moment of 
anger had passed, and knew how to be magnanimous. 

Among the innumerable duties of the Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, who was the executive officer of a 
Department employing at that time in Washington three 
thousand persons, was that of taking daily to the Secre- 
tary the warrants for his signature. Any body can read- 
ily imagine how numerous they always were, what a 
great scope of indebtedness they covered, and what large 
sums many of them represented. When tliey reached 
him they had already been through the auditing offices, 
the Register's office, and the Treasurer's office, and only 
awaited the Secretary's signature to be complete. Some- 
how, Mr. Chase did not seem to think that he was dis- 
charging a merely ministerial duty when he signed 
them. On the contrary, notwithstanding the valuable 
time that it occupied to do so, he always carefully scru- 
tinized every one of them, and hardly a day passed that 
he did not laj^ aside a dozen or more unsigned for future 
explanations. 

I happened once to be with the Secretary when the 
President, without knocking, and unannounced, as was 



MR. LINCOLN'S SAVINGS. 283 

his halnt, entered the room. His rusty black hat vras on 
the back of his head, and he wore, as was his custom, an 
old gray shawl across his shoulders. To the best of my 
recollection, this occurred in tlie spring of the year lS6-i. 
I said good-morning to Mr. Lincoln, and then, as was the 
established etiquette when the President called, withdrew 
from the office. As Mr. Lincoln, in his infrequent visits 
to the Secretary, usually remained a long time, I sup- 
posed that I had my freedom for at least half an hour, 
and proceeded to attend to the accumulation of business 
which awaited me in my own room. But I was mis- 
taken. In less than five minutes I M-as summoned to 
return to the Secretary. Mr. Schuckees, his private 
secretary, entered the room at the same time that I did. 
The President was gone, and there was lying npon one 
end of Mr. Chase's desk a confused mass of Treasury 
notes, Demand notes. Seven-thirty notes, and other rep- 
resentatives of value. Mr. Chase told us that this lot of 
money had . j ust been brought by Mr. Lincoln, who de- 
sired to have it converted into bonds. He informed us 
that the President said that it amounted to sixty-eight 
thousand dollars, but that he had not counted it. Gen- 
eral Splmnek, the Treasurer, was then sent for. When 
the General came up from his office down stairs, he, Mr. 
SciiucKERS, and myself, proceeded together to count the 
money. The amount proved to be, as represented, just 
sixty-eight thousand dollars, which was certainly a large 
sum for Mr. Lincoln to have saved from his salary in 
three years. Possibly a good deal of this money may 
have been anonymous gifts. However, it may be said 
that there was very clever financiering done in the White 
House in those days, about which the President was sup- 



284 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

posed to liave little or no knowledge. He only knew 
that the establishment was conducted in a marvelonsly 
economical manner. I had it from a Senator, Avho was 
appointed chairman of an investigating committee npon 
the subject at a secret session of the Senate, that a state 
dinner was paid for out of an appropriation for fertilizers 
for tlie grounds connected wdth the Executive Mansion. 
How far this " Heathen Chinee" business Avas carried, it 
w^ould probably be difficult to ascertain at this distance 
of time. One thing only is certain, and that is that Mr. 
Lincoln wt^s personally thoroughly honest. 

I remember a very absurd incident connected with Mr. 
Chase. He and I happened to be going together one 
evening from ISTew York to Washington. We engaged 
a coach at the Fifth Avenue Hotel to convey us to the 
Cortlandt Street Ferry. Wlien w^e arrived there, alight- 
ing from the carriage, Mr. Chase paid the driver, and 
we hastened toward the boat. We had not gone far, how- 
ever, before the driver, who did not know his distinguish- 
ed " fare," shonted to the Secretary to come back. We 
accordingly retraced our steps, and when we had again 
reached the carriage, the coachman exclaimed: "Halloo, 
old man, what do you mean by trying to pass bogus stamps 
on me? I have a great mind to have you arrested !" He 
then placed into Mr. Chase's hand two tifty-cent frac- 
tional notes, which he asserted lie had just received from 
him in part payment. The Secretai-y looked at^them, 
and, saying that he conld not see that they were bad, 
handed them to me for examination. I at once perceived 
that they were not only bad, but even ver?/ bad, being 
obviously impressions from a wooden block. I so in- 
formed Mr, Chase, and he gave others for them. But 



GENERAL BUTLER. 285 

it always struck me as a huge joke tliat he had been de- 
tected in the attempt, innocent though it was, to pass 
counterfeits of his own currency. 

Very soon after he became Secretary of the Treasury, 
and before his person was known to many of the em- 
ployes of the Department, he entered the Treasury build- 
ing one Sunday, and, disregarding the protest of the 
watchman at tlie door, attempted to pass up staii's to liis 
own room. There was a regulation prohibiting any one 
from coming in on that day except upon an order of the 
Secretary or of the Assistant Secretary. Finding his calls 
disregarded, the watchman started in pursuit of the in- 
truder just as he readied the top step. Seizing Mr. Chase 
by the collar, he was about to use violence, when the lat- 
ter quietly asked him if it was his purpose to eject the 
Secretary from his own Department. The man, fright- 
ened at his act, attempted to excuse himself for his ig- 
norance in assailing his chief, but Mr. Chase cut him 
short by commending him for faithfully discharging his 
duty. Keturning to his mate, he rubbed his hands and 
exclaimed to him, " That keeps me here at least four 
years longer !" 

Mr. Chase always entertained a very exalted opinion 
of General Butler's executive ability. I remember 
once, that as the General left the Secretary's room, the 
latter turned to me and said, " There is the fittest man 
in the United States to be Secretary of War!" During 
the winter of 1863-4, when the General was in com- 
mand at Fortress Monroe, I took a revenue cutter and, 
accompanied by some friends, among whom were H. A. 
Risley, Esq., of the Treasury Department, the father of 
Mr. Seward's adopted daughter, and Arthur Leary, 



286 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK 

Esq., of New York, paid liim a visit. Among otlier civili- 
ties, the General entertained ns at dinner. The dinner 
was an excellent one, and was served upon old-fashioned 
blue china. The General remarked that he did not sup- 
pose it would injuriously affect our appetites to be in- 
formed that we were dining off a service w^hich belonged 
to EX-GovEENOR Heney A. Wise, of Virginia. There was 
a good deal of animated conversation at table, and one 
of those present expressed the opinion that when our 
civil war should be over, such a military spirit would 
have been engendered in the American people that we 
would become a nation of filibusters. " It is very likely," 
answered the General, " that we shall go about the world 
with a chip upon our shoulder !" 

An excursion to Hampton, and a review of the first 
negro regiment ever raised, was proposed after dinner by 
the General. Accordingly, four saddle horses, one for 
him, two for his aids, and one for myself, besides two 
ambulances for the others of the party, were brought to 
the door with but little delay. As I was no equestrian, 
I declined the horse in favor of Mr. Risley, who is the 
most modest man in the world, and who deprecatingly 
accepted it ; while I hastened to ensconce myself in the 
interior of an ambulance. It was a piercingly cold day, 
and Mr. Risley was as inexperienced a horseman as my- 
self ; but this I only learned afterward. The reins of 
the ambulance were reluctantly taken by Mr. Leaky. 

The General used very short stirrups, and sat on his 
liorse like a monkey ; but he went like the wind. Mr. 
RrsLEY galloped at liis side, looking like a centaur, and 
with a wonderfully complacent expression of counte- 
nance. And yet he was suffering martyrdom, and for 



AN INCIDENT OP THE TAYLOR CAMPAIGN. 2S7 

ten days thereafter was unable to sit npriglit. Mr. Leaky 
endured agony — his hands were ahiiost frozen. I was 
comparatively comfortable. I do not think tljat Mr. 
RiSLEY quite forgave me for a long time, although he 
is the most amiable man of my acquaintance. 

I went on to Washington once during the war in a 
private car placed at my disposal by the Baltimore and 
Ohio Eailroad Company, and meeting Genekal Butler 
at the station, invited him to share it with me. In order 
to give sleeping accommodations to the ladies who accom- 
panied him, he and I had to sit up all night. I passed 
the time smoking, and listening to his delightful and in- 
structive talk. I suppose that General Butler knows 
more about more subjects than any other man in this 
country, unless it be Caleb Cushing. He is a kind, true, 
fast friend, and at the same time the most obliging, the 
bravest, and the most calumniated man living. 

A reference just above to ex-Governor Wise reminds 
me of a little incident. I was traveling in the Southern 
States daring the winter of 1859, and I happened to 
meet at Montgomery, Alabama, a Virginia gentleman 
M'ho had formerly been in the ISavy, and was afterward a 
member of the National Congress from his native state. 
He told me that during the Taylor campaign he stumped 
that state in favor of the hero of Buena Yista, while 
Governor Wise did the same thing on the other side. 
After the fashion that then prevailed in the South and 
the Southwest, the two speakers traveled together, and 
alternated in addressing their audiences. They arrived, 
in the course of their journey, at Lynchburg, where it 
was the Governor's turn to speak iirst. In his address he 
dwelt largely u])on the incapacity and unfitness of Gen- 



288 3IEM0RIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

ERAL Taylor for the Presidency, said that he liad been 
unable to write his own disjjatches, and that they were 
all written by his son-in-law, Colonel Bliss. He harped 
a long time upon his ignorance, e^•en calling him " Old 
Ignorance." When my informant rose to reply, he made 
a short address upon the political issues involved in the 
election, and then closed with the remark that, in answer 
to what his friend had said about General Taylor's ig- 
norance, his only reply was that, "Where ignorance is 
£liss, 'tis folly to be WiseT^ at the same time pointing 
his finger at the Governor. 

Mr. Colfax, late Yice-President, and Mr. Wasuburne, 
now Minister to France, were competing candidates for 
the Speakership of the Thirty-eighth Congress. Some 
three weeks before the time for Congress to meet, Mr. 
Colfax came to AVashington, and immediately entered 
upon an active canvass for the post to which he aspired. 
Mr.WASHBURNE Only made his appearance at a very late 
moment, and was surprised to find that the question of 
the Speakership was already virtually settled against him. 
He complained to Mr. Chase that I was interfering in 
Mr. Colfax's behalf ; and the Secretar}^ sent for me, and 
cautioned me against doing any thing in favor of or 
against either candidate, as they were both very good 
friends to our Department, Now what I had done, and 
all that I had done, in the premises was this : Before the 
organization of the House of Representatives, Mr. Edavin 
Croswell, formerly of the Albany Argus, came to me in 
Washington in behalf of the Hon. Henry G. Stebbins, 
member of Congress elect from the first New York district. 
It is very likely that he came without Mr. Stebbins's 
knowledge. He desired to liave that gentleman made a 



MR. STEBBINS AND GENERAL SPINNER. 289 

member of the Committee of \yays and Means, and, at 
his instance, I not only gave him a letter to Mr. Colfax 
upon the subject, but also called several times npon that 
gentleman to nrge liim to appoint Mr. Stebbins upon that 
Committee, in case he should be the successful candi- 
date for the Speakership. After Mr. Colfax's election, 
and before he had announced the committees, he told 
me that although he could not promise to comply with 
my wish, still, if Mr. Stebbins should, after all, find his 
name upon the list of committees where I desired to see 
it, I was at liberty to say to him that it was through my 
intervention that the matter was accomplished. Mr. 
Stebbins received the appointment, and by his course 
amply justified the Speaker's action. Although a Demo- 
crat, he ardently supported the Go\ernment, and during 
liis brief term of service made two of the soundest and 
most eloquent financial speeches that were delivered dur- 
ing the war. His health soon failed, and he was com- 
pelled to withdraw for a time from all business. Mr. 
Chase told me that the Hon. Feknando Wood called 
upon him several times, with a view to a place upon the 
same committee. Mr. Chase was very much j)leased with 
Mr. Wood at these interviews. 

I could relate several anecdotes of General Spin- 
ner, the United States Treasurer, and the author of the 
amazing autograph which graces our national money, 
but I shall confine myself to a single one which he him- 
self told me. The General is equally noted for his hon- 
esty and his profanity. Before he was made Treasurer 
of the United States by President Lincoln, he had been 
a member of Congress from the Herkimer District, New 
York. Senator Wade, of Ohio, was as conspicuous for 

N 



290 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

the use of strong language as was Mr. Spinnek. Shortly 
after the accession of the latter to office, he made an even- 
ing call upon. Mrs. Wade. In course of conversation, it 
came out that he was no longer a member of the House 
of Eepresentatives, as that lady supposed. " That ex- 
plains," she said, "Mr. Wade's astonishingly increased 
profanity. Formerly he used to swear for the Senate 
and you for the House. Now he has to swear for both !" 

At one time, when there was a constant apprehension 
that Washington would be attacked, we organized a regi- 
ment in the Treasury Department for home service. As 
I was anxious to do all in my power to encourage 
the enterprise, I enlisted as a raw recruit in the com- 
pany of which Colonel Jones, of the Treasurer's office, 
was Captain. General Spinner, who was a veteran, 
joined the same company as a private. At the drills, 
I was always perpetrating the most awkward move- 
ments, and upon one occasion came very near putting 
out with my bayonet the eyes of a fellow-soldier who 
stood just behind me. He bore my homicidal attempt 
with all meekness, because I was Assistant Secretary 
of the Treasury. It used to be delightful to witness 
the fervor and energy with which General Spinner 
went through the manual. We had a very fine band 
of music, entirely composed of Department clerks, and 
the bray of their brazen instruments, as we marched 
through the echoing corridors of the Treasury building 
of an evening, still lingers in my ears. 

Mr. Chase was induced, at a certain period, to adopt 
for the use of the Government, for its paper obligations, 
what was called a "membrane paper," which it was 
claimed rendered counterfeiting impossible. The print- 



THE BLOOD OF JOHN BROWX. 291 

ing was done in the Department, and the Secretary sup- 
posed that this paper was so carefully guarded and 
watched that it was impossible for the smallest piece 
of it to be abstracted or to get astray. He used to keep 
a little specimen of it, about four inches long by three 
wide, upon his desk, and to explain to those to whom he 
showed it that he had himself been compelled to give a 
receipt for it before he was allowed to take it, so scru- 
pulous was the care with which it was guarded. It hap- 
pened that I once had occasion to go down to the room 
where this paper was received, and where the sheets were 
counted before being stored in an apartment below. 
There were two doors to this room upon one of the cor- 
ridors, and they were both open. The corridor was full 
of laborers, standing in a line, who had come to receive 
their pay from the disbursing agent. Upon a counter 
in the room were heaped sheets of the precious paper. 
A pile of mutilated sheets stood in one corner. Two 
women, upon their knees scrubbing the floor, were the 
only occupants of the room, the person in charge having 
temporarily gone elsewhere. I immediately ejected the 
women, locked both doors, and carried the keys to the 
Secretary. This little incident changed liis views in re- 
lation to the Cerberus-like watchfulness with which his 
paper had been guarded. 

"We had at that time an elephant on our hands in the 
Department in the person of a brother of John Beown, 
"whose soul is marching on." Fkedeeick Bko^vn had 
been successively detailed to almost every bureau, and 
after a few days dismissed from each as incompetent and 
insubordinate. He was a harmless, garrulous old man, 
who used to obstruct a corridor for hours, pouring out a 



292 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

ceaseless stream of talk upon whomsoever ■would stop to 
listen to liim. Finally lie became a nuisance that had 
to be in some way abated ; but we were loth to abandon 
altogether a man so connected. So we had him ap- 
pointed keeper of a light-house, situated upon a rock far 
off the coast of North Carolina ! lie was employed at 
one time in the office of the Light-House Board, of 
which the Secretary of the Treasury is, ex-ojjicio, Chair- 
man, and of which Admiral Shubrick was then the 
acting chief. Brown had the habit of sitting with his 
feet elevated upon a table even in the presence of his 
official superiors. He was remonstrated with, and told 
that he ought, at least, to resume a decent position when 
Admiral Shubrick entered the room. " I don't see why 
I should," he auswered ; "the Admiral doesn't take down 
his feet when / come in !" 

Upon another occasion Admiral Shubrick, desiring to 
send him out with a communication, asked him — " Mr. 
Brown, do you know wdiere the Xavy Department is ?" 
" No," answ^ered Brown. " Do you know where the War 
Department is ?" " No." " Do you know where Wild- 
er's building is?" "No." "Well," emphatically de- 
manded the old Admiral, '■^wliat do you know?" "I 
know," coolly rej)lied Brown, " that Admiral Dams is a 
gentleman," 

One day the Superintendent of the printing of fraction- 
al currency came into my office accompanied by a beauti- 
ful but very pale girl of about sixteen. I was engaged, 
but I saw that he had something urgent to say, and so I 
immediately gave him my attention. He told me that 
for some time past there had been frequent thefts of 
entire sheets of fractional currency from Iiis office, al- 



A PRETTY THIEF. 293 

thougli he bad supposed that he had adopted such checks 
as would render any abstraction impossible; that the 
amount taken at each successive time was larger than at 
the previous one ; that the entire sum was altogether 
about twelve hundred dollars, whereof some four hun- 
dred had been stolen only two or three days before ; 
that he had not dared to say any thing about it to the 
Secretary, and that he had just detected the little girl 
who was with him as the culprit. I turned to the girl, 
and asked her if the charge against her was true. With 
increasing pallor, but without shedding a tear, she ad- 
mitted that it was. I directed the Superintendent to 
take her up stairs again, and await further orders, and I 
sent a messenger for Police Detective Claevoe. Just 
then a middle-aged lady, who had been waiting my 
leisure, walked up to my desk and urged her claims 
to be appointed a clerk in the Department. I court- 
eously made to her tlie stereotyped statement that we 
had thousands of applicants and no vacancies; and 
when I had finished, she turned upon me in a vixenish 
way and said : " If I were only young and pretty, like 
the young person who has just gone out, you would give 
me a place, as you have undoubtedly given her one." I 
made no reply, but I could not avoid thinking how dif- 
ferently she would have spoken had she known upon 
what business that poor cliild had been brought to me. 
Before Clarvoe came I had communicated with the 
Secretary upon the subject, and he very properly de- 
manded the immediate arrest of the thief. So I was 
compelled to hand her over to the detective for incarcer- 
ation, and I requested him to report to me as soon as 
possible all that he could ascertain about the case. The 



294 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

ensuing day lie returned to me, and gave me her whole 
history. She was the daughter of an extensive import- 
ing merchant in one of our great cities, who had failed in 
business soon after the commencement of the war, and 
had then, regardless of his family, committed suicide. 
Some of the friends of the unfortunate man commanded 
influence sufficient to procure for the daughter the posi- 
tion which she held in the mechanical department of the 
Treasury. Soon afterward her mother went to the bad, 
and took up with a Portuguese blockade-runner. These 
two together corrupted the child. Every penny that she 
liad abstracted had been taken at their instance, and 
for the benefit of one or the other of them. He had 
traced the money last stolen to one of the principal dry- 
goods shops in Washington, where she had purchased 
silk dresses and other articles for her mother, and paid 
for them with the uncut sheets, which the proprietor had 
very strangely accepted. Both the man and the woman 
had left "Washington directly after the arrest. There 
was nothing to be recovered. I thought this a pretty 
hard case, and so said to the Secretary ; but he insisted 
that it was liis duty to criminally prosecute the girl for 
the sake of the example. Of course he was right in 
principle. But I then asked him where he supposed 
the public, if informed of the transaction, would at- 
tach most blame, to this tempted, unsophisticated girl, 
or to the Treasury Department, which surrounded its 
manufacture of paper money with such insufficient 
checks as to render the abstraction possible? lie un- 
derstood this as I intended it, and forthwith directed 
that the matter be dropped, upon the single condition 
that the girl should go away from the capital and not 



FBEDEBICK DOUGLASS. 295 

return there. I sent for Clakvoe, and communicated 
to liim the Secretary's decision. I then ascertained that, 
instead of taking the child to jail, he had placed her in 
his own house in charge of his wife, who had kindly 
cared for her all the time. We discovered several other 
thefts in the Department during my time, but in every 
other instance we recovered the entire amount that had 
been taken. 

I saw Feedekick Douglass several times in Washing- 
ton, and he impressed me, as he did every one else, by 
his remarkable intelligence. I once heard him, born a 
slave, get decidedly the better of Pkesident Johnson in 
a political discussion ; and I was present upon another 
occasion when he talked about banking to Mr. Feeeman 
Claeke, of the Committee of Ways and Means, with an 
astonishing ability and apparent familiarity with the 
subject. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

A CORRECT version of the circumstances which in- 
duced and accompanied Mr. Chase's withdrawal 
from Mr, Lincoln's Cabinet has never, to my kno^vledge, 
been given to the public. About the first of June, 1864, 
Mr. Cisco tendered to the President, through the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, his peremptory resignation of the 
office of Assistant Treasurer of the United States at 
New York, to take effect immediately after the close of 
the fiscal year, viz., on tlie first of July. Efforts were 
unsuccessfully made to induce him to withdraw it, and 
it then became necessary to find somebody to take his 
place. A furious competition for the oflice immediate- 
ly sprang up. Mr. Chase, after a few days, went to 
New York, where he remaiued some time. lie offered 
the position to three leading bankers, but they declined 
it. He then returned to Washington, and remained in- 
active upon the subject until very late in the month. 
One morning he sent for me, and told me that he had 
some time before decided to nominate me to the Presi- 
dent, but that, equally to his surprise and regret, a gen- 
tleman of high position and great influence had called 
upon him and objected to the nomination. However, 
he had ordered his carriage, and intended to go direct- 
ly to the Senate, and canvass that body upon the sub- 
ject; and if he found that I would be confirmed, he 
would send my name to the President that very after- 



CANVASSING THE SENATE. 297 

noon. In conclusion, he desired me to call at his house 
at five o'clock. 

Accordingly, at the appointed time I went there. Mr. 
Chase told me that he had spent two hours upon the 
floor of the Senate, and that he thought I would be 
unanimously confirmed ; that even the gentleman who 
opposed me would not, he believed, carry his opposition 
so far as to vote against my confirmation. I thus knew 
that the gentleman to wdiom he had referred in the 
morning was a Senator, and I fancied that he must be 
a Senator from New York. As I was acquainted with 
the favorable disposition of one of them toward me, I 
had no difiiculty in concluding in my own mind who it 
was that was hostile to my nomination. Mr. Chase had 
already sent my name to the President, and he desired 
me to leave for New York that very evening, so as to ar- 
range for my oflicial bonds, and be prepared to assume 
the duties of the office on the first of July. I objected 
to this, under the circumstances ; but I promised the Sec- 
retary that I would take my departure immediately aft- 
er Mr. Lincoln should nominate me to the Senate. 

The next day a recommendation that I be appointed, 
signed by every Union member of the Lower House 
from the State of New York, was transmitted to the 
President, and the friendly Senator called upon him to 
indorse it. 

However, I w^as not nominated to the Senate on that 
day. The following morning Mr. Chase again sent for 
me, and told me that he had received a letter from Mr. 
Lincoln, in which he expressed a disinclination to nom- 
inate me on account of the opposition of one of the 
New York Senators, and invited him to a conference 

N2 



298 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

upon the subject. Mr. Chase, instead of calling, replied 
by letter. For several days communications were pass- 
ing between liim and the President. This correspond- 
ence, however, I have never seen. Finally, one day as 
I was discharging my official duties as usual, with the 
room full of people, Mr. Schuckees rushed in, and whis- 
pered into my ear, " We have no longer a Secretary ; 
Mr. Chase has resigned, and the President has accepted 
his resignation !" Thereupon I went directly to Mr. 
Chase, and asked him if the news which I had just 
heard was true. Fie answered in the affirmative. I 
then requested his permission to tender my own resig- 
nation to the President. He told me that such action 
would look factious, and must not be thought of. 

Then Mr. Lincoln nominated to the Senate ex-Gov- 
EENOK Tod, of Ohio, as Secretary of the Treasury. At 
this nomination the Senate and the country stood aghast. 
A Senatorial Committee called upon the President, and 
asked him to withdraw the nomination of Mr. Tod, but 
he refused to do so. Fortunately that gentleman, who 
knew that he had no chance to be conffi-med, cut the 
knot by declining the appointment. 

The afternoon of the day of the acceptance of Mr. 
Chase's resignation, I was upon the floor of the House 
of Representatives. Members flocked around me, eager 
for information, and I was addressed by the facetious 
title of " Cabinet-smasher." 

Tlien Congress and the country, with a united voice, 
demanded the appointment of Mr. Fessenden, at that 
time Chairman of the Committee on Finance in the 
Senate. Never did a man more reluctantly accept of- 
fice. He knew better than any body else liis want of 



ME. LINCOLN EXPLAINS. 299 

fitness for an executive position. He said that bis place, 
and his only place, was in a forensic assembly. During 
his administration of the affairs of the Treasury he con- 
fided much to his subordinates, who had more practical 
experience than himself ; and I trust and believe that he 
was faithfully served. 

Mr. Chase had been out of the Department nearly 
two months, when I happened to be spending an evening 
with Mr. Sewakd. In the course of the conversation, 
I referred to the transaction which had resulted in an 
exchange of the Treasury portfolio, and explained the 
reasons which had induced Mr. Lincoln to decline nom- 
inating me as Assistant Treasurer at New York, as I then 
understood them — viz., that he was unwilling to appoint 
to so important an office one of Democratic antecedents ; 
that he had recognized the propriety of retaining Mr. 
Cisco, notwithstanding his politics, on account of his em- 
inent services before and since the war; but that he 
thought that, if a change was to be made, the ofiice 
should be treated as strictly party property. Mr. Sew- 
akd assured me that I took an entirely erroneous view 
of the matter, and advised me to seek a personal ex- 
planation from the President. I asked Mr. Sewaed 
to have a preliminary talk with Mr. Lincoln upon the 
subject, which he kindly promised to do. I may here 
observe that Mr. Chase's feeling had been that the As- 
sistant Treasurer at New York being his right arm, he 
ought not to be interfered with in making a selection. 

A few days later I walked over to the Executive Man- 
sion at about two o'clock in the afternoon. The Presi- 
dent's ante-chamber was crowded with people awaiting 
an audience ; but as soon as Mr. Lincoln received my 



300 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

card he gave orders to admit me. I expected to be 
with him ten minutes, at the utmost, but lie detained me 
nearly two hours. The interview was, altogether, one 
of the most interesting and amusing I ever had in my 
life. 

The President received me with great cordiality, and 
I began to repeat to him substantially what I had said 
to Mr. Sewaed. He listened to me laughingly, but 
impatiently, shaking his head all the time. When I 
had got through, he said : " You are altogether on the 
wrong track. Why, didn't I nominate, as Cjiase''s suc- 
cessor, Dave Tod, who has been all his life a Democrat, 
and who worked and voted for Douglas and against 
me ? No, sir ; I will tell you all about it. The Kepub- 
lican party in your state is divided into two factions, and 
I can't afford to quarrel with either of them. By ac- 
cident, rather than by any design of mine, the radi- 
cals have got possession of the most important Federal 
offices in ISTew York. I care nothiug whatever about 
your personal politics. You were pressed by Mr. Chase 

and opposed by Senator . Had I, under these 

circumstances, consented to your appointment, it would 
have been another radical triumph, and I couldn't afford 
one. That is all that there is about it, so far as you are 
concerned. But I'll tell you what happened at the time 
between m^^self and Chase. One day, early in June, 
Chase came to me and said, 'Mr. President, Cisco has 
resigned at New York, and I am going on there to see 
who is the best man to put into his place.' " Here Mr. 
LmcoLN's face assumed an indescribably droll expres- 
sion, and, drawing his head toward mine, and placing 
his enormous hand upon my knee, he said, " That, you 



MR. CHASE IS stubborn: 39 1 

understand, was a peg that would fit any hole /" The 
President continued : " Well, Chase went to New York, 
and in due time returned, I suppose, but he did not 
come near me. In the mean time there was the 
fiercest contest waging for the vacant ofiice that I re- 
member since I have been in this jplacey (This is the 
manner in which Mr. Lincoln always referred to his po- 
sition as President.) " I must confess that 3'ou were the 

most numerously indorsed, but opposed you. The 

next time that I heard from Chase upon the subject was 
when he wrote to me requesting me to nominate you. 
I answered his communication, and asked him to come 
and see me, and talk over the matter. Instead of doing 
so, he wrote me again, saying that he would have you 
and nobody else. And so we fired letters at each other 
for two or three days. I offered to nominate either of 
three gentlemen who happened to be acceptable to Sen- 
ator ; but Chase objected to all of them. Final- 
ly, as I was sitting here at my desk one morning, with 
the room full of people, a letter from the Treasury De- 
partment was brought to me. I opened it, recognized 
Chase's handwriting, read the first sentence, and infer- 
red from its tenor that this matter was in the way of 
satisfactory adjustment. I was truly glad of this, and, 
laying the envelope with its inclosure down upon the 
desk, went on talking. People were coming and going 
all the time till three o'clock, and I forgot all about 
Chase's letter. At that hour it occurred to me that I 
would go down stairs and get a bit of lunch. My wife 
happened to be away, and they had failed to call me at 
the usual time. While I was sitting alone at table m.y 
tlioughts reverted to Chase's letter, and I determined to 



302 MEMORIES OP MANY MEN. 

answer it just as soon as I slionld go up stairs again. 
Well, as soon as I was back here, I took pen and paper 
and prepared to write ; but then it occurred to me that 
I might as well read the letter before I answered it. I 
took it out of the envelope for that purpose, and, as I 
did so, another inclosure fell from it upon the floor. I 
picked it. up, read it, and said to myself, ' Halloo, this is a 
horse of another color P It was his resignation. I put 
my pen into my mouth, and grit my teeth upon it. I did 
not long reflect. I very soon decided to accept it, and I 
nominated Dave Tod to succeed him. 

" But there is a history behind all this which I don't 
mind telling you. Are you aware that this was the 
fourth time that Chase had tendered me his resignation ? 
No ? "Well, it was. I will tell you how it all happened. 
The first occasion was when Sewakd tendered his, after 
the Republican Senators had passed resolutions hostile 
to him. Chase soon followed suit, and by so doing ren- 
dered me a great favor, which I shall ever hold in grate- 
ful remembrance. Matters were fixed v-p, and neither 
of them left the Cabinet. 

" Some time after this there was a Collector of Customs 
on the Pacific coast, one of Chase's men, who was rep- 
resented to me to be a worthless vagabond, and even a 
defaulter. I spoke to Chase about him ; but he had en- 
tire confidence in him, and refused to listen to any thing 
to his disadvantage. While matters stood thus, Chase 
one day told me that he felt overworked, and proposed 
taking a little trip down the Potomac, but that he would 
not be gone longer than two days. I said, ' All right, 
Mr. Secretary,' and we shook hands and parted. As luck 
would have it, I was waited upon the very next day by 



MR. LINCOLN YIELDS. 3O3 

a delegation of all tlie gentlemen from the Pacific coast, 
both official and unofiicial, who then happened to be in 
"VYasliiugton. They filed formal charges with me against 
the Collector to whom I have referred, and demanded 
his immediate removal. I told them that the Secretary 
of the Treasury was out of town, that it wonld be dis- 
courteous to him if I acted upon the matter in his ab- 
sence, but that he would return in one or two days at 
the latest, and I invited them to call upon me again in 
about a week, when I promised, under all circumstances, 
a definite answer to their request. A week passed. No 
Chase. The delegation returned, and as I was thor- 
oughly convinced of not only the propriety of, but even 
the necessity for the act, I removed the Collector, and 
appointed another in his stead. The first notice that I 
received of Chase's return was about three days after- 
wai'd, when I found his resignation lying upon my table. 
I waited until evening, and then ordered my carriage 
and drove to his house. I found him in the oflice to 
the left as you enter the door. I went directly up to 
him with the resignation in my hand, and, putting my 
arm around his neck, said to him, ' Chase, here is a pa- 
per with which I wish to have nothiug to do; take it 
back, and be reasonable.' I then explained to him what 
had occurred while he was away. I told him that the 
man whom I had appointed happened to have been dead 
several weeks ; that I couldn't replace the person whom 
I had removed — that was impossible — but that I would 
appoint any one else whom he should select for the place. 
It was difficult to bring him to terms; I had to plead 
with him a long time, but I finally succeeded, and heard 
nothing more of that resignation. 



304: MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

" You remember," Mr. Lincoln continued, " that when 
Hiram Baeney was appointed, at the beginning of this 
Administration, Collector of the Port of New York, 
every body supposed that he was Chase's selection, and 
nobody else's. Now Baeney was as much my choice as 
he was Chase's ; and when — Chase, Sewakd, and myself 
standing round that table — Barney's appointment was 
decided upon, I believe that I was the most gratified 
person then present. Well, I have just as great confi- 
dence in Mr. Barney's integrity and patriotism now as I 
had then. But after a time things got very mixed in the 
New York Custom-House, and the establishment was 
being run almost exclusively in tlie interest of the rad- 
icals, I felt very great delicacy in doing any thing that 
might be offensive to my friend Barney. And yet some- 
thing had to be done. There was no use in attempting 
to bring Chase over to my views. But I tried it, and 
failed. Then I waited for a time. At last I made up 
my mind to take action, hoping to be able to afterward 
reconcile Chase to it. So I sent for Seward, and told 
him that he must find a diplomatic position in Europe 
for Barney. Seward said that it was not an easy thing 
to do; but I was peremptory, and told him it must be 
done. After two or three days Seward came back, and 
reported to me that he had found the place. Just then 
Chase became aware of my little conspiracy. He was 
very angry ; and he told me that the day that Mr. Barney 
left the New York Custom-House, with or without his own 
consent, he, Chase, would withdraw from the Secretary- 
ship of the Treasury. Well, I hacked doivn again. Now 
I ask you, as a reasonable man, whether, when the resig- 
nation with which you are concerned came, I cov2d, with 
an}' self-respect, hesitate to accept it ?" 



A CHARACTERISTIC LETTER. 305 

This is the substance of what Mr. Lincoln told me 
that afternoon. When I got home in the evening, I took 
notes of the conversation, and I have here endeavored to 
reproduce his part of it as faithfully as possible. It was 
Mr. Chase's nature to connnand, not to obey. lie would 
have made an admirable President, but he could not sub- 
ordinate himself to any superior authority. I have in 
my possession a copy of a letter addressed by Mr. Chase 
to the President, under date of January 13, 1S64. It 
is, apparently, in reply to two received from him, one 
upon the subject of Mr. Bakney's removal, and the oth- 
er complaining about a biographical sketch of himself 
which Mr. Chase had permitted to be written for a mag- 
azine published in the city of Philadelphia. It is as 
follows : 

" My dear Sir, — I am to-day fifty-six years old. I have never, 
consciously and deliberately, injured a fellow-man. It is too late 
for me to begin by sacrificing to clamor tlie reputation of a man 
wliom I have known for more than twenty years, and whose re- 
pute for honesty has been all that time unsullied. I shall not rec- 
ommend the removal of Mr. Barney except upon such show of his 
misconduct or incapacity as makes it my duty to do so. In such 
a case I shall not shrink from my duty. 

" I pretend no inditference to the consequences, personal to my- 
self, which you refer to as likely to follow this avowal on my part. 
But the api^roval of my own conscience is dearer to me than po- 
litical position, and I shall clioerfully sacrifice the latter to pre- 
serve the former. 

" I received some days ago your note in relation to a biograph- 
ical sketch to be printed in a Philadelphia periodical. It was a 
matter in which I had no concern. If any body wants my auto- 
graph, and I have time, I give it ; if any body wants to take my 
daguerreotype or photograph, and I have time, I sit for it ; if any 
body wants to take my life, in the way of a biographical sketch, / 
let Mm take it, and, if I have time, give such information as is 



306 ME3WEIES OF MANY HEN. 

■wanted, that lie may take it the more easily. Some friends wanted 
sucli a sketch i^rcijared, and engaged a gentleman to prepare it. 
The publisher of the American Exchange and Rcvieic — a resiiectable 
periodical, by the way, I am told — was about to print a series of 
such sketches, and proposed to begin with that of me. How could 
I object ? He asked for subscriptions, and obtained them. How 
could I control or suiiervise that ? I was veiy busy with the affairs 
of my Department, and had no time to look after such matters, 
even had I been aware of what was being done. If I had been 
consulted, I should certainly have objected to any subscription by 
Mr. Jay Cooke or his brother ; excej^t such a moderate one as any 
friend might have made. Not that any wrong was intended or 
done, but because the act was subject to misconstruction, and there 
are so many to misconstrue. Mr. Jay Cooke is a friend; and though 
he did not subscribe to the sketch, he doubtless sanctioned the 
subscription of his brother Henry, who is also a friend (and the 
son of a friend), whose friendshiiJ was formed when I was j)ower- 
less to bestow favors. Neither of the brothers, nor the father, have 
ever received at my hands, since I have had some power, any favor 
which they have not earned by strenuous and untiring labors for 
the public interest; nor any which my worst enemy would not 
have received as freely had he rendered the same services. What 
Mr. H. D. CooKE did about the unfortunate biograjjhy was done 
of his own accord, without prompting from me, and his brother's 
approval was given in the same way. 

" You will pardon me if I write as one somewhat moved. It 
makes me hate i^ublic life when I realize how powerless are the 
most faithful labors and the most upright conduct to i^rotect any 
man from carping envy or malignant denunciations ; and how little 
he can expect even from the best and most intelligent when such 
noises prevail. It is almost equally painful to think how little 
friends are disjDOsed to bear with the mistakes and inadvertencies 
of other friends, and how ready to make me responsible for them 
as well as my own. Very sincerely yours, 

" S. P. Chase. 

" To the President." 



CHAPTER XII. 

"VTR. FESSENDEN, while he was Secretary of the 
-^*-^ Treasury, was a martyr to dyspepsia. He was 
much more familiar in his manners than Mr. Chase, and 
failed to inspire his subordinates with that awe which 
his predecessor had always done. He came to be very 
much liked. I do not remember any of the moderns who 
could stand np successfully against him in an imj)romptu 
discussion in the Senate. It is said that, before the war, 
Jeffeeson Davis feared to cross swords with him more 
than he did with any other member of that body. Mr. 
Fessenden hated Mr. Sumneb, and Mr. Sumner very 
much disliked Mr. Fessenden. Upon one and the same 
day, Mr. Fessenden spoke to me of Mr. Scmnee as " no 
gentleman," and Mr. Sumnek designated Mr. Fessenden 
as " a mere Senatorial gladiator." I believe that their 
relations improved, if they did not become actual friends, 
before Mr. Fessenden's death. 

I remember that one day, immediately after a Cabinet 
meeting, Mr. Fessenden, entering his room in the De- 
jDartment where I was awaiting his return, advanced to- 
M^ard me with glowing countenance, and said, "I tell you 
Mr. Field, Mr. Lincoln is more of a politician than all 
liis Cabinet put together !" Before he had the oj^portn- 
nity to explain what had so excited his enthusiasm, some- 
body came in upon business, and the matter was dropped. 

Mr. Fessenden told me what an unruly lad he had 



308 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

been when a student at Bowdoin College, I think he 
said that he was finally dismissed without receiving a de- 
gree. At any rate, he mentioned that when he left there, 
in more or less disgrace, he told the President or the Fac- 
ulty tliat he would return in less than five years as a 
Trustee o£ the institution — and he did it. 

During my time, the present Assistant Secretary of the 
Treasury, the Hon. Joun F. Hartley, was Chief Clerk. 
This excellent and modest gentleman was a college con- 
temporary of Mr. Fessenden. He has now been con- 
nected with the Department nearly forty years ; and is, 
unquestionably, the best revenue lawyer in the country. 
Ex-Senatok Joun p. Hale, of New Hampshire, told me 
that Franklin Pierce, William Pitt Fessenden, Na- 
thaniel Hawthorne, Hugh McCulloch, John F. Hart- 
ley, and himself, were all at Bowdoin College, Maine, 
at the same time, although not all in the same class; and 
that, had they then been told that among their number 
there was one who was destined to achieve great future 
distinction, all would have agreed that Hartley must be 
the man. Going to Washington for his health more than 
a generation ago, he accepted a clerkship in the Treas- 
ury Department, and thei'e he has ever since remained. 
In every Department of the Government there are to be 
found a few of these old oflicials, whose services have 
become almost indispensable, and who have grown so 
accustomed to a life of routine that they can not eman- 
cipate themselves from it. Such wei-e my old friends 
Mr, West, Mr. Wood, and Mr. Handy, all since deceased ; 
and my college class-mate, Mr. Gaines, and others, who 
still remain. 

There used to be a clerk in the Remster's ofiice who 



''TITE BARXACLE'' IN WASHINGTON. 309 

beloiiired to one of those Wasliino-ton families which 
ever since the foundation of the Government liave con- 
sidered themselves, by prescriptive right, entitled to be 
provided for by it. At the same time, his father was 
chief of one of the bureaus in the War Department, 
and he had a brother who was employed in the Inte- 
rior Department. He had also another brother who 
had been in the Army, but, becoming disabled by ill- 
ness, had been honorably discharged. For tJiis brother, 
too, he was determined to secure a place in the civil 
service. With this object he went from Department 
to Department, but always without success. Finally 
he determined to go directly to the President himself, 
and to appeal to him to intervene in behalf of the dis- 
charged soldier. Mr. Lincoln, it would seem, had lieard 
of the case before the Treasury clerk secured the au- 
dience with him which he sought. When the inter- 
view had terminated, the disappointed clerk rushed 
back to our Department and into my office, and com- 
menced, in the most indiscreet and intemperate man- 
ner, to express his disgust with the President. "It is 
a disgrace to the country," he said, " that such a boor 
should be President of the United States !" I drew from 
him the story of what had occurred between the Pres- 
ident and himself, and it was something like this : Mr. 
Lincoln received him kindly, and listened to his request. 
"Why don't you go directly to the Secretaries'^" he ask- 
ed. " I have been to them all, and failed with all," was 
the answer. " Hasn't your brother sufficiently recovered 
his health to enable him to return to the Army?" in- 
quired the President. " N"o, sir, he has not," was the re- 
ply. " Let me see," continued Mr. Lincoln, " I believe 



310 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

that yon yourself are a clerk in one of tlie Departments — 
which one is it ?" " The Treasury Department, sir." " I 
thought so. lias your brother as good clerical capacity 
as you possess ?" " Yes, sir." " I think that I have some- 
where met your father. Doesn't he hold an ofdce in 
Washington?" "Yes, sir; he is chief of the bu- 
reau in the War Department." " Oh, yes ; I now recol- 
lect him perfectly well. Has your brother good refer- 
ences as to character V " Yes, sir ; the very best." " Is 
there any other of your family holding office under the 
Government ?" " Yes, sir ; I have a younger brother in 
the Interior Department." "Well, then, all I have to 

say to you, Mr. , is that there are too many hogs 

and too little fodder .^" 

I was once in Mr, Lincoln's company when a sectarian 
discussion arose. He himself looked very grave, and 
made no observation until all the others had finished 
what they had to say. Then, with a twinkle of the eye, 
he remarked that he preferred the Episcoj^alians to every 
other sect, because they are equally indifferent to a man's 
religion and his politics. 

This is not quite so bad as the remark attributed to 
the revivalist preacher. Elder Knapp, that " it is easier 
for a codfish to climb a tree, tail foremost, with a loaf of 
bread in his mouth, than for an Episcopalian to go to 
heaven." 

It happened that at one time a blockade-runner going 
out of Charleston harbor was captured, and on board of 
her were found certain dispatches from the Spanish Con- 
sul in that city for his own Government. These dispatch- 
es were very improperly opened by the captor, and then 
forwarded to the State Department at Washington. Mr. 



''A LITTLE story:' 311 

Seward, immediately after tliey reached his hands, sent 
for the Spanish Minister, Mr. Tassaea, and, with expres- 
sions of great regret that the envelopes had been tampered 
with, offered him the dispatches. The Minister, highly 
indignant, declined to receive them. Then Mr. Seward 
proposed to forward them to their destination through 
the medium of our own agents. This proposition was 
equally unacceptable, and the Secretary of State was at 
a loss what to do. He shortly afterward explained the 
difficulty to the President, whom it reminded of " a little 
story." " When I lived in Indiana," he said, " there re- 
sided very near us an old negro, known as Uncle Josh. 
He was a very pious darkey, but was so infirm that it 
was impossible for him to go to the neighboring school- 
house to listen to any itinerant preacher who might hap- 
pen to discourse there on a Sunday. However, in order 
to make up as far as possible for his own inability to at- 
tend, he always compelled his grandchildren to go ; and 
they were required, not only to recollect the text, but 
also to be able to give the old man some account of 
the sermon. On one occasion a Methodist came and 
preached. He told the congregation that there were two 
kinds of people in this world, Methodists and Baptists ; 
that the Methodists followed a road that led to heaven, 
and the Baptists one that led to hell. The next Sunday 
there presented himself a hard-shell Baptist, who had 
heard about the sermon of his Methodist brother. He 
told his auditors that it was true that there were two 
kinds of people in the world, Methodists and Baptists, 
and that they followed different roads ; but that it was 
the Baptist road that led to heaven, and the Methodist 
road that led to hell. When old Uncle Josh heard this, 



312 MEMOBIES OF MANY MEN. 

he scratched his •wool, and said : ' Each one says that there 
are only two roads, and that his own leads to heaven, and 
the other to hell. Well, this old nigger will go across 
lots !' Sewaed, you will have to go across lots !" 

Story-telling was often with Mr. Lincoln a defensive 
weapon, which he emj)loyed with great skill. Frequent- 
ly, when he was unwilling to grant a request, he would 
tell a story. It was so much easier to do this than to 
refuse outright. Many a petitioner was dismissed by 
him, overcome with laughter, and forgetting, perhaps, 
until he was outside the house, that his visit had been a 
failure. With civility the President was not overbur- 
dened, and his manners were any thing but acceptable 
to the fair sex. I used constantly to observe in Wash- 
ington during the wai*, that, whereas all men appeared 
more or less abashed on a23proachiDg, at least for the 
first time, the nation's leaders, the ladies shared in none 
of this difhdence. On one occasion a lady was talking 
to Mr. Lincoln, asking a favor at that, and he remained 
sitting while she stood. After a while he arose and drew 
up another chair, as she supposed with the intention of of- 
fering it to her. Nothing of the sort. He stretched out 
his own long legs upon it. This was more than female 
patience could endure. " Mr. Lincoln," exclaimed the 
lady, " I think you are the worst-bred man in the world." 
" Halloo," asked the President, " what have I done now ?" 
The lady explained, and Mr. Lincoln, in the best temper, 
admitted that he believed she was right. 

But Mr. Lincoln did not always deal exclusively in 
burlesque. He received once a call from a delegation 
of bank Presidents, at one of the gloomiest periods of the 
war, when depression and even discouragement prevailed 



MR. LINCOLN'S KINDNESS. 313 

in many places. One of the financial gentlemen asked 
the President if his confidence in the fnture was not be- 
ginning to be shaken. " Xot in the least," he answered. 
" When I was a young man in Illinois," he continued, " I 
boarded for a time with a deacon of the Presbyterian 
Church. One night I was aroused from my sleep by a 
rap at my door, and I heard the deacon's voice exclaim- 
ing, 'Arise, Abraham, the day of judgment has come!' 
I sprang from my bed, and rushed to the window ; and 
there I saw the stars falling in a shower. But I looked 
beyond those falling stars, and far back in the heavens 
I saw — fixed, apparently, and immovable — the grand old 
constellations with which I was so well acquainted. ISTo, 
gentlemen ; the world did not come to an end then, nor 
will the Union now !" 

Mr. Lincoln possessed extraordinary kindness of heart 
when his feelings could be reached. He was fond of 
dumb animals, especially cats. I have seen him fondle 
one for an hour. Helplessness and suffering touched 
him when they appealed directly to his senses, or when 
you could penetrate through his intelligence to them. 
His imagination was not vivid. He might know as a 
fact that whole hecatombs were lying upon a battle-field 
in the agonies of death without being very deeply af- 
fected. One afternoon I happened to be in Baltimore, 
and met there one of the most eminent physicians of the 
city, who told me a pitiful story. A gentleman of large 
wealth and of the highest social position was lying in liis 
own house in the last stages of consumption. He sym- 
pathized with the rebel cause, but had never aided it by 
deed or money. He had an only daughter and child, 
who had been educated in Paris, and who liad been a 

O 



31-4 J^rEMORIES OF 3IANY MEN. 

recognized belle at home. She married there her cousin, 
and went to reside with him in Virginia. When the war 
broke out, her husband was appointed a General in the 
Confederate service, and was killed in one of the first 
engagements. He left his widow with an infant. For 
a long time she made vain efforts to go to her father. 
Finally, accompanied by her child and a negro nurse, 
she followed in the wake of Eakly's raid into Pennsyl- 
vania. Sometimes she walked, and sometimes she was 
permitted to ride upon a baggage-wagon, until she finally 
reached the Pennsylvania mountains — poor, exhausted, 
and ill. But even here her troubles were not at an end, 
for our authorities refused to allow her to go to Balti- 
more to join her dying father. It so happened that, vis- 
iting Baltimore when a vei'y young man, I received many 
courtesies at the hands of this gentleman. I expressed 
a desire to call upon him, and, jumping into the doctor's 
gig, I accompanied him to the house. I found my old 
friend in a very shocking condition. I expressed to him 
my sympathy and my desire to do any thing within my 
power to bring father and daughter once again together. 
He thanked me, but assured me that my efforts would 
prove vain. General Dix, while in command there, and 
others, had done all that they could, but Mr. Stanton 
was inexorable. I parted from him, and returned to 
Washington. The next day I went to Mr. Lincoln and 
told him the story, much better, I hope, than I have told 
it here. I succeeded in moving him, and in obtaining 
directly from him a telegraphic order permitting the lady 
to come to Baltimore, and to reside there under surveil- 
lance. I never heard any thing more about it, but pre- 
sume that the order was carried out, unless the brutal 



OENEMAL NYE'S REPUBLICAN SAINT. 3^5 

Stanton overruled it, which he was quite capable of 
doing. 

Probably next to Mr. Lincoln, the best story-teller in 
"Washington was Senator Nye, of Nevada, commonly 
known as "Jm ISTye." Unfortunately, however, like 
some of Mr. Lincoln's, many of his stories will not bear 
repetition. I remember a dinner that was given at Wash- 
ington in the club-room at Willard's, by the representa- 
tives of the leading express companies, upon the occasion 
of the conclusion of a contract with tlie Treasury De- 
partment for the transportation of national bank-notes, 
and w^hich was attended by a veiy distinguished com- 
pany. If my memory does not fail me upon that point, 
among others present was General Grant. At all 
events, Nye was there in the happiest possible mood. 
After the cloth was removed, he kept the table in a con- 
tinuous roar of laughter, as he has done before and since 
" many a time and oft," Among the best of his stories 
was the following, which he related M'ith a gravity and 
an unction that it would be impossible to imitate upon 
paper. In brief, and divested of Nye's solemn details 
and rich verbiage, it ran somewhat as follows : While 
Nye was Governor of Nevada, there came to Carson City 
an old man who had been, with varying luck, wandering 
among the mines of California since the first discovery of 
gold there in 1849. At last he had succeeded in accu- 
mulating a snug fortune, and he had come to Carson to 
visit an old companion in those early days, who was then 
residing there. The visitor very soon after his arrival 
fell ill. His host, who was a pious man, begged to be 
permitted to call a clergyman, but the guest obstinately 
refused to allow it. He rapidly grew worse, and his 



316 MEMORIES OF MANY MEK 

condition soon became critical. But all his friend's im- 
portunities that he should see a clergyman proved un- 
availing. Finally the physician in attendance declared 
that the sick man had but a few hours to live; and the 
host's conscience impelled him to renew the attack, and 
to tell his friend that, if he adhered to his determination, 
and continued to refuse to indicate a preference for a 
clergyman of any particular denomination, he limiself 
was determined to send for his own pastor. The mori- 
bund, who was rapidly sinking, turned his head upon his 
pillow, and, articulating with difficulty, replied : " I can't 
see — what occasion — I have — for the services — of a cler- 
gyman. I never — voted — the Democratic — ticket — in 
my life." 

While I was in Washington, Hoeace Geeeley used 
occasionally to visit us there. I remember that he once 
breakfasted with me, if I recollect aright, tete-d-tete. Mr. 
Geeeley had long before this discarded Graham bread 
and a vegetable diet, and had grown to be a very hearty 
devourer of animal food. After breakfast I lighted a ci- 
gar, and offered one to him, although I knew that he did 
not smoke. Of course, he declined it. lie was in cap- 
ital humor, and, turning to me, he asked me if I knew 
that he claimed to be the most polite man in the coun- 
try. I told him that I recognized his many excellent 
qualities, but was not aware that he was especially re- 
markable for the graces of politeness. lie assured me 
that he was, and told me that he had never been beaten 
in politeness but once in his life. That happened, he 
said, many years ago, before the days of railroads. Early 
one morning he left Baggs's Hotel, at Utica, in the stage- 
coach, westward bound. There was but one passenger 



OREELET AS CHESTERFIELD. 317 

besides himself — a gentleman of very prepossessing ap- 
pearance, with whom he soon fell into conversation. 
After a while the stranger slowly and, as it were, me- 
chanically drew a cigar-case from his pocket, and, open- 
ing it, tendered it to Mr. Gkeeley, who declined the prof- 
ered offer. The conversation was resumed ; and present- 
ly the stranger, extracting a cigar from the case, placed 
it in his mouth, and returned the case to his pocket. An- 
other interval of talk ensued, when the stranger abruptly 
but deferentially remarked to Mr. Geeeley, " I hope, 
sir, you have no objection to a cigar 1" "None in the 
world, sir," replied Mr. Gkeeley, " when it is not alight." 
" Oh," replied his companion, " I had not the most re- 
mote thought of lighting it !" Thereupon Mr. Geee- 
ley felt that he had been conquered in politeness; and 
he afterward ascertained that the victor was the famous 
Captain Sherman, of Lake Champlain. 

He also told me that when he was residing in one of 
the up-town streets of New York, and before the disso- 
lution of the political firm of " Seward, "Weed, and Gree- 
ley," Mr. Sewaed came to breakfast with him one day, 
just as he had then been breakfasting w^ith me. The 
breakfast finished, Sewaed lighted a cigar, just as I had 
done. Now Mrs. Geeeley happened to be ill in a room 
just over that in which the gentlemen were, and her hus- 
band knew that just so soon as the cigar-smoke should 
make its way to her nostrils through the flue of the chim- 
ney, she would descend upon them like an avalanche in 
whatever costume she happened just then to be. " I was 
fearfully terrified," said Mr. Geeeley; " and, starting up, 
I said to Sewaed, ' Sewaed, it's a fine day ; let's take a lit- 
tle walk.' In less time than I can tell it I had him out of 



318 MEMORIES OF AfANY MEN. 

the house, and we walked round and round the block 
more than an hour. And the best of it is that Sewakd 
doesn't know to this day what my motive was in so un- 
ceremoniously dragging him away from the house that 
morning." He told the story so earnestly and so quaint- 
ly that I hardly knew while he was relating it whether 
I was laughing witli him or at him. 

It was by means of a letter of introduction from Mr. 
Geeeley that I made the acquaintance in Washington 
of the late Majok Charles G. IlALriNE, better known 
to the literary public by his nom de jplume of Miles 
O ''lieilly. Mr. Geeeley thought that the Major, who was 
a War Democrat.^ could furnish us important information 
about the condition of tlie New York Custom -House. 
It turned out, however, that all that he could tell us of 
a reliable character we already knew. Tlie Major pos- 
sessed much talent as a song and squib writer, but he 
was only an indifferent politician. The confidence with 
which he used to stammer out his reading of the politi- 
cal horoscope was very amusing to those who knew 
him. 

With a single exception, the foreign Ministers accred- 
ited to our Government during the war of tlie Eebellion 
had very little faith in the ultimate success of the Union 
cause. That exception was Beetinatti, the Italian. I 
met him the day after that on which we received au- 
thentic intelligence of the Bull Run disaster. He de- 
clared to me his conviction that it was the most fortu- 
nate thing that could have happened to us ; that it would 
serve to unite and arouse the people of the loj^al states ; 
and that the end would be the abolition of slavery, and 
the re-establishment of a Union free in fact as well as in 



LORD LYONS. 319 

name. Who of iis tlien made a more promising and 
more intelligent forecast of our national future ? 

LoKD Lyons, whatever his opinions, which he was too 
trained a diplomatist to express, did excellent service to 
our country as well as to his own. He and Mr. Sewakd 
acted as two policemen to keep the peace between Great 
Britain and the States. Loed Lyons was a most intelli- 
gent, cultivated, and laborious man. Lie had extraor- 
dinary flashes of wit, and, like Washington Ikying in his 
later years, the habit of suddenly falling asleep, any 
where and at the most inopportune moments. He treat- 
ed the juniors of his legation with great kindness, but he 
compelled them to work. Some of these young gentle- 
men, who had been in the habit of kicking their heels in 
Paris and Vienna, rather chafed under the restraint of 
compulsory business hours. Of all houses, Lord Lyons 
preferred the Russian Minister's, because there he felt 
perfectly at home. lie and a lot more of us used to con- 
gregate npon the steps of that hospitable mansion, and on 
the sidewalk in front of it, during the intolerably hot 
summer nights, when sleep was an impossibility, and sip 
tea a la Russe until almost daylight. In this connection, 
were there occasion to do so, I might speak more of the 
friendly Bektinatti, who just before the end of his mis- 
sion here married a beautiful widow, the possessor of 
large estates in Mississippi, which she secured from con- 
fiscation by her diplomatic alliance ; and say something 
of that exaggerated cherub, the amiable Piper ; the 
jovial, card -loving Stoeckl; the dissatisfied Mercier; 
the crafty Blondeel ; the kind but timid Yon Gerolt ; 
ScHLELDEN, the glvcr of Gothic dinners, at which alwaj's 
figured that famous " Heidelberg wine ;" the good-hu- 



320 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

mored and hospitable Lisboa ; tlie somewliat saturnine 
Tassaea; the courtly and elegant Bakkeda; and that 
eccentric invalid, Geoegi, And I might talk about the 
scenes of liorror after the battles of the Wilderness, when 
for days long files of ambulances filled with the wound- 
ed and dyiug passed through the unpaved streets of 
Washington, on their way to the hospitals on the out- 
skirts of the city ; of the admirable administration of 
those hospitals ; of touching incidents which I witnessed 
in their wards ; and of a thousand other things of daily 
or occasional occurrence. But let it all pass — at least 
for the nonce. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IT was an April afternoon in the year 1865. I was 
driving alone on tlie Fourteenth Street road in the 
direction of the Soldiers' Home. Presently I heard a 
clatter behind me, and, looking out of the carriage-win- 
dow, I saw Mr. Lincoln approaching on horseback, fol- 
lowed by the usual cavalry escort. He soon came up to 
me, and, while he rode for some time at my side, we 
conversed together upon indifferent subjects. I noticed 
that he was in one of those moods when "melancholy 
seemed to be dripping from him," and his eye had that 
expression of profound weariness and sadness which I 
never saw in other human eye. After a while he put 
spurs to his horse and hurried on, and he and his fol- 
lowers were soon lost to view. 

The next evening I was sitting alone in the reading- 
room of Willard's Hotel, where I resided during the ab- 
sence of my family from Washington. Presently I was 
joined by Mr. Mellen, Special Agent of the Treasury 
Department. I never saw the hotel so apparently de- 
serted as it was that evening. The usually crowded cor- 
ridors were empty. Ten o'clock came, and Mr. Mellen 
left me to retire to his room. I then picked up the even- 
ing newspaper, intending, after I had read it, to follow 
his example. Scarcely had I commenced reading, when 
two men rushed headlong into the hotel, shouting that 
the President had been shot at Ford's Theatre ! I sprang 

02 



322 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

from my seat to follow tliem to the office, but before I 
could reach it a third person entered, more calm than 
the two who had preceded him, and confirmed their 
statement. 

I immediately dashed up stairs and called Mr. Mellen. 
He was already partly undressed, but he got ready as 
soon as possible, and together we rushed down E Street 
to the theatre. We found assembled in front of it about 
a hundred persons, many of whom knew us. They crowd- 
ed around us, and each of them had a different story to 
tell about what had occurred. We learned that five min- 
utes before our arrival Mr. Lincoln had been carried over 
to the house of Petersen, a German tailor, in Tenth 
Street, and directly oj^posite the theatre. I do not re- 
member what became of Mr. Mellen, but I at once en- 
tered the house, the street door of which was standing 
open. In the hall I met Miss IIareis, the daughter of Sen- 
ator Harris, of New York, who had been one of the 
Presidential party at the theatre. As soon as she saw me, 
she exclaimed, " Oh, Mr. Field, the President is dying ! 
but for heaven's sake do not tell Mrs. Lincoln !" I in- 
quired where Mrs. Lincoln was, and was informed that 
she was in the front parlor. I entered the parlor, and 
found her there entirely alone. She was standing by 
a marble-topped table in the centre of the room, with 
her bonnet on and gloved, just as she had come from 
the theatre. As I came in she exclaimed, " Why didn't 
he shoot me ? Why didn't he shoot me ? Why didn't 
he shoot me V I asked her if there was any thing that 
I could do, and she begged me to run for Dr. Stone, 
the President's family physician. I started to do so, but 
met in the hall Major Eckert, of the War Department, 



ASSASSmATION' OF MR. LINCOLN. 323 

who told me that the doctor had ah-eadj been sent for, 
and, not having yet arrived, he was himself going to 
bring him. I returned to tlie parlor, made tliis explana- 
tion to Mrs. Lincoln, and inquired if there was any thing 
else that she desired me to do. She requested me to 
try to find Dr. Hall, a retired physician of the high- 
est reputation. It took me a long time to reach him, 
for he lived at a distance, but I finally succeeded, and 
started with him to walk back to Peteesen's house. 
As we approached it, we found a military cordon drawn 
around the door, and, although the doctor was permitted 
to pass, the same privilege was refused to me. 

I returned to Willard's Hotel, and went up to the 
room of Mr. Kufus Andrews, then recently Surveyor of 
the Port of New York, where I met the late City Judge 
Russell. I remained there perhaps two hours, and then 
again started for Petersen's house, accompanied by Mr. 
Andrews. When we arrived there we found the guard 
withdrawn, and had no difficulty in getting in. We 
proceeded directly to the room in which Mr. Lincoln 
was lying, a small extension room at the end of the 
hall, from Avhich you descended to it by two steps. 
The room was plainly furnished, and there were some 
prints hanging upon the walls. The President was lying 
transversely across the cottage bedstead, as he was too 
tall to be placed in any other position. His head was 
supported upon two pillows on the side nearest the 
windows, and his feet rested against the opposite end of 
the foot -board. Dr. Stone was sitting upon the bed. 
Secretary Welles occupied a rocking-chair, which he 
did not vacate, I believe, during the entire night. Sur- 
geon-General Barnes was sitting in an ordinary chair 



324 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

by tlie bedside, holding Mr. Lincoln's left band. All the 
other persons in the room were standing. Senator Sitm- 
NEK and RoBEKT Lincoln were, the greater part of the 
time, leaning over the head-board. The others who were 
in the room during the whole or a part of the night, 
were Seceetaey McCullocii, Seceetaky Stanton, Sec- 

EETAEY USIIEE, AtTOENEY - GeNEEAL SpEED, CiIIEF JUS- 
TICE Chase, Goveenoe Faewell, of Wisconsin, Gov- 
EENOE Oglesby, of lUiiiois, Speake:e Colfax, Geneeals 
IIalleck, Meigs, and Augur, Assistant Seceetaey of 
the Inteeioe Otto, Congeessman Faenswoeth, of Illi- 
nois, Assistant Suegeon-Geneeal Ceane, Colonel John 
Hay, the President's Assistant Private Secretaiy, Colo- 
nel Todd, the Eev. Dr. Gueley, Charlie, Mr. Lincoln's 
body servant, and perhaps a few others whom I do not 
at present recall. From time to time Mrs. Lincoln was 
brought into the room, but she never remained there long. 
The President's eyes were closed and ecchymose. Pelow 
the lids and around the cheek-bones the flesh was black. 
Blood and brains were oozing from the wound in his 
head upon the uppermost of the pillows which supported 
it. He had been stripped of all clothing, and whenever 
one of the physicians turned down the sheet which cover- 
ed his person, in order to feel the beatings of his heart, 
his brawny chest and immensely muscular arms revealed 
the hero of many a successful wrestling-match in his 
youthful days at ]N"ew Salem. 

Ilis breathing was for a long time loud and stertorous, 
ending in deep-drawn sighs. He was totally unconscious 
from the moment that he was struck by the assassin's 
bullet. Except his breathing, and the sobbing of his 
wife, son, and devoted servant, not a sound was to be 



" THE KING IS dead:' 325 

heard in that chamber for hours. The dropping of a 
pin would have been audible. 

"What a tragic episode in life's history was this to 
all there assembled ! And not only to us, but to the 
nation and to the world ! 

His pulse was vacillating all through the night — at 
times strong and rapid, and at others feeble and slow. 
His vital power was prodigious, or he would have died 
within ten minutes after he was shot. 

The night wore on, long and anxious, and finally the 
gray dawn of a dull and rainy morning began to creep 
slowly into the room. And still the martyr lived — if liv- 
ing it could be called. 

The town clocks struck seven. Almost immediately 
afterward the character of the President's breathing 
changed. It became faint and low. At intervals it al- 
together ceased, until we thought him dead. And then 
it would be again resumed. I was standing directly op- 
posite his face, with my watch in my hand. 

At last, at just twenty-two minutes past seven, he 
ceased to breathe. 

When it became certain to all that his soul had taken 
its flight, Dr. Gueley dropped upon his knees by the 
bedside and uttered a fervent prayer. Never was a sup- 
plication wafted to the. Creator under more solemn cir- 
cumstances. 

When it was finished, most of the persons assembled 
began slowly to withdraw from the chamber of death. 
I, however, with a few others, remained. We closed the 
eyes completely, and placed silver coins upon them, and 
with a pocket-handkerchief we tied up the jaw, which 
had already begun to fall. Mr. Stanton threw open the 



326 MEMORIES OF 3IANT MEN. 

two windows of the room. Jnst then Petersen entered, 
and rudely drawing the upper pillow from under the 
head of the dead, tossed it into the yard. Shortly after- 
ward we retired from the room. Mr. Stanton locked 
the door, and stationed a sentry in front of it. I then 
went into the front parlor, where I found Dr. Gueley 
again praying. Mrs. Lincoln was lying upon a sofa, 
moaning, and her son E-obekt was standing at lier head. 
When Dr. Gukley had finished his prayer, Egbert 
Lincoln assisted his mother to rise, and together we 
walked to the front door. The President's carriage was 
standing before the house in the dripping rain, as it had 
stood there all through that terrible night. As Mrs. Lin- 
coln reached the door-steps, she cast a hurried glance at 
the theatre opposite, and three times repeated, " Oh, that 
dreadful house !" She was then helped into the carriage, 
which drove away. 

Perhaps the most affecting incident connected with 
this drama occurred an hour later. Mr. Lincoln's 
body, inclosed in a plain wooden box, around which was 
wrapped the American flag, was borne from the house by 
six private soldiers ; then placed in an ordinary hearse, 
behind which the soldiers marched like mourners; and 
so carried to the Executive Mansion. As the cortege 
passed along, it attracted but little attention, for but few 
persons knew what burden was being carried past their 
doors. It was fitting that this great man of the people 
— plain Uncle Abe then, as in years gone by in his West- 
ern home — should pass through the silent streets of the 
capital under the escort of common men. The rude 
backwoodsman, who had become a Moses to lead a peo- 
ple to deliverance from servitude, when dead, first fell 



''LOXO LIVE THE KING:' 327 

into tlie arms of men humble as lie himself had been. 
But none the less was the pageantry which followed ap- 
propriate for that President of the United States whose 
name is destined to stand upon the roll of our nation's 
history only second to that of the immortal Washington. 

I walked back to Willard's alone that morning. Just 
as I turned from Tenth into E Street, I met the Chief 
Justice hurrying in the opposite direction. His eyes 
were bloodshot, and his entire face was distorted as I 
had never before seen it. " Is he dead ?" he asked. I 
answered, " Yes," and gave him a very brief account of 
Mr. Lincoln's last moments. He passed on, and half an 
hour later he proceeded to the Kirkwood House, accom- 
panied by some of the members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabi- 
net, and administered there the oath of office to Andrew 
Johnson, as President of the United States. 

When I reached my hotel, I went directly to my room, 
and after washing and arranging my disordered dress, I 
came down to breakfast. The tables were crowded with 
ladies and gentlemen, the greater number of whom had 
only that morning heard of the tragedy, and they were 
eating as quietly, and apparently as unconcernedly, as if 
nothing unusual liad occurred. I distinctly remember 
how this jarred upon my overwrought feelings. The 
contrast between the two scenes was too violent to be 
endured long. I could not eat, so I lighted a cigar, and 
walked up to the Treasury building. I went directly to 
my own office, and threw myself upon a lounge. Pres- 
ently Mr. Haktlet and one or two of the bureau officers 
came in to me. There were but very few of the persons 
employed in the Department who came there at all that 



328 MEMORIES OF MANY MEN. 

day. No interruption of business was formally an- 
nounced, but there was nobody tliere to transact any. 
Gloom, despondency, and even alarm pervaded all Gov- 
ernment circles. It was known that Mr. Sewakd and 
his son Fkedeeick had been stricken down. It was re- 
ported that Mr. Stanton had been laid in wait for. The 
wildest rumors about the extent of the conspiracy were 
circulated. Nothing was positively known, not even that 
it was Wilkes Booth who had murdered Mr. Lincoln. 
I remember that somebody brought me a revolver, and 
insisted that I should carry it for my own protection. 
Presently a reporter from the N'ew Yorh Times obtained 
access to me, and insisted that I should write for his 
paper an account of the President's death. I excused 
myself upon the plea of weariness ; but he would not let 
me off until I had dictated to him a statement, which he 
took down in short-hand. Then followed a reporter of 
the PMladeljpMa Inquirer^ and I had to do the same 
thing for him. I believe that these were the only cir- 
cumstantial accounts of the last scenes which were pub- 
lished at the time, perhaps at any time. My head felt 
dazed, and I took a street car and went to Georgetown. 
I called upon Father Early, the principal of the Col- 
lege there, and he told me about a mysterious person 
who had been lurking around their grounds the previous 
night. Then I came home, and being by this time com- 
pletely exhausted, went directly to bed, and soon fell 
into a profound sleep. 

Three days afterward followed Mr. Lincoln's funeral, 
of which my colleague, Mr. Harrington, had the princi- 
pal charge. The various official bodies who were to at- 
tend it met before proceeding to the Executive Mansion 



THE CURTAIN FALLS. 329 

in separate rooms assigned to each of tliem in the Treas- 
ury building. They were to go thence to the Wliite 
House in the reverse order of dignity, and it was my 
duty to so marshal them that there should be no break 
in the procession. And here occurred one of those little 
conflicts of etiquette which will sometimes obtrude them- 
selves upon the m.ost solemn occasions. The Chief Jus- 
tice insisted that the diplomatic body precede himself 
and his associates, while the foreign representatives de- 
manded that the Supreme Court precede them. The 
rooms occupied by the disputants were distant from each 
other. I had to run from one to the other. Finally 
Bakon Von Geeolt, the dean of the diplomatic corps, 
gave wsij Jbr the occasion, without prejudice, however, 
to any claims, etc. 

As I saw Mr. Lincoln lying in state in the East Room 
of the Executive Mansion, his appearance was quite un- 
like what it had been immediately after his death. The 
black had gone from his eyes and his face, which had re- 
sumed a natui-al color. This, I was informed, was the 
work of an artist. The pencil had been employed to 
produce the change. While his corpse was being carried 
in procession through the cities of the land, before it 
was exposed to public gaze, the coffin was opened, the 
dnst was brushed from the face, and the discolored parts 
were retouched. And so he went to his rest ! 



INDEX. 



Abbas Pasha, 27; Sofia, his Dis- 
carded Wife, 29. 

Adams, Charles Francis, on Presi- 
dent Monroe, 226. 

Adams, John Quincy, 225. 

Adrian ; or, the Clouds of the Mind, 
205. 

AflTectionate Behavior of President 
Pierce, 173. 

Albrecht, Prince of Prussia, 28. 

Alexander in the Tent of Darius, 
the Painting of, 2U. 

Alva, the Duke and Duchess of, 96. 

Apsley House, Closed Shuttersof, 14. 

Argyll, Duke of, Attacks Lord Der- 
by, 146. 

Aspinwall's Picture-Gallery, 231. 

Assassination of Napoleon III., At- 
tempted, 126. 

Assassination of President Lincoln, 
321 et seq. 

Astor's, John Jacob, Bequest to 
Halleck, 224. 

Athens in 1844, 30; the Beautiful 
Queen, 30. 

Audiences, Anecdotes of Private, 
68. 

Aumale,Duc d'. Entering Paris, 16. 

Ball to H. E. IT. the Prince of 
Wales, 241 et seq. 

Bank Presidents Consulted by Sec- 
retary Chase, 256. 

Earn-hurners and Hunkers, 182. 

Bai-ker, Mr. Sigourney, 199. 



Barney, Collector of the Port of New 
York, 260, 304. 

Barnum and Jenny Lind, 216 et seq. 

Barreda, the Courtly and Elegant, 
320. 

Barry, Sir Charles, the Architect, 
45. 

Bates, of Baring Brothers, 50. 

Bath, the Young Marquis of. Lord 
Farintosh, 133. 

Belmont, August, Minister to Hol- 
land, 169 ; his Picture-Gallery, 
231. 

Benkard's Eesidence, Prince Napo- 
leon's Admiration of, 230. 

Bertinatti, the Italian Minister, 
gives a Dinner to Prince Napo- 
leon, 231 ; his BeHef in the 
Union, 318. 

Bethune, Eev. Dr., 180. 

Bigelow, of Boston, on Taxation, 
277. 

"Black Warrior Affair," the, 69. 

Blessington, Countess of, 51 ; her 
Mot about Lamartine, 51. 

Blondeel, the Crafty, 319. 

Bomba, King of Naples, Brutal 
Treatment of his Wife, 26. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, Anecdote of, 34. 

Butzaris, the Handsome Miss, 30. 

Bowdoin College, Distinguished 
Fellow-students at, 308. 

Bradhurst, Mr. John M., 167. 

Brodhead, John R., in London, 53 ; 
his Anglicized Ways, 54 ; Naval 



332 



INDEX. 



Officer in New York, 54 ; his His- 
tory of New York, 55. 

Brodie, Sir Benjamin, the Great 
Surgeon, 46. 

Brough, Governor, of Ohio, 281. 

Brown, Frederick, Brother of Old 
John, 291 ; Anecdotes of, 292. 

"Brummagem" Manners, 23; 
Punishment for, 24. 

Brunswick, the Late Duke of, 112. 

Buchanan ,^nd the "Ostend Mani- 
festo," 75 ; Careful of Expenses, 
76 ; at Wheatland, 171 ; Minis- 
ter to England, 172 ; with Prince 
of Wales, 243. 

Burr, Kecollections of Aaron, 155. 

Butler, General Benj. F., Chase's 
Opinion of, 285 ; Author's Opin- 
ion of, 286. 

Byron, Eccentricities of Lady, 140. 

Byron, his Lameness, 210; Swims 
the Hellespont, 211 ; his Appear- 
ance,212; Anecdotes of, 2 11-2 13. 

Cabinet, Bickerings in Lincoln's, 

263. 
Cameron's, Simon, Dismissal from 

the Cabinet, 267 et seq. 
Campbell, Robert S., Appointed 

Consul in London, 173, 174; 

Anecdote of, 150. 
Campbell, the Unfortunate Habits 

of the Poet, 208. 
Canadian Exhibitors at the Paris 

Palace of Industry, 103. 
Carnarvon, the Earl of, 147. 
Carnival, the Eoman, 25. 
Cass, Pun on Name of Senator, 182. 
Champagne in an English Chop- 
house, 54. 
Charles of Austria, Archduke, 20. 
Charles X., Anecdote of, 109. 
Chartist Demonstration in 1848,39 ; 

Macaulay's Estimate of Number 

in the, 142. 



Chase, S. P., Appointed Secretary 
of the Treasury, 253 ; Consults 
J. J. Cisco, 254 ; Visits New 
York, 255 ; and Seward, 262 ; 
Extract from his Diary, 267 ; 
his Mental Calibre, 280; his 
Honesty of Purpose, 280 ; Pres- 
idential Aspirations of, 281 ; 
Nervous Temperament, 281; 
ScoldingBrother Secretaries,28] ; 
Careful Discharge of his Duties, 
282 ; Opinion of Lincoln's Econ- 
omy, 284 ; Passing Counterfeit 
Currency, 284 ; his Opinion of 
General Benj. F. Butler, 285 ; 
Story of his Repeated Resigna- 
tions, 298 et seq. ; Letter to the 
President, 305. 

Christina, Ex-Queen of Spain, and 
her Family, 1 1 2. 

Cisco, John J. , 166; and Howell 
Cobb, 250 ; his Anxiety about 
the Credit of the Country, 252 ; 
Resigns the Fiscal Agency, 253 ; 
Withdraws his Resignation, 254; 
Opinions as to the War, 255 ; 
Borrows Gold at Four per Cent., 
257. 

Clanricarde, Marquis of, 147. 

Clarvoe, Kind Conduct of Detect- 
ive, 295. 

Climate, Influence of the English, 
36. 

Clotilde, Princess, in New York, 
229 et seq. 

Cobb, Howell, and the First Gov- 
ernment Loan, 250. 

Cockney, Quizzing a, 42. 

Colfiix, the Late Vice-President, 
288. 

Commission of Military Engineers 
to Europe, 132. 

Commissioners to Paris Exhibition, 
their Perplexities and Worries, 
102 et seq. 



INDEX. 



333 



Constituent Cortes at Madrid : Ap- 
pearance and Eeal Character of 
the Members, 81. 

Cooke, Jay and II. D., 306. 

Cooper, James Fenimore, 1 78 ; Re- 
spect for his Memory, 179. 

Counterfeit Currency passed by Sec- 
retary Chase, 28i. 

Coutts, Baroness, 50. 

Crampton's Dismissal, Complica- 
tions arising out of, 150 et seq. 

Cross of the Legion of Honor, 
Awards of the, 136. 

Cuba : Soule on the Acquisition of 
the Island by the United States, 
98. 

Curtis, Geo. WiUiam, 198. 

Gushing, Caleb, and President 
Pierce, 160. 

Czartoriski, the Dashing Princess, 
112. 

Dalliousie, Letter from the Mar- 
quis of, 207. 

Darley, the Artist, 198. 

Derby, Eloquence of the Late Earl 
of, 146. 

Diary, Extract from Mr. Chase's, 
267. 

Dickens, Charles, his Treatment 
during the Carnival at Rome, 
25 ; Washington Irving's Indig- 
nation at his Rough Manners, 
31; Rude Behavior of, 185. 

Dinners to Prince Napoleon in 
New York, 233 ; in Boston, 
231. 

Disraeli in the House of Commons, 
147. 

Dix, John A., Appointed Secretary 
of the Treasury, 252. 

Dolley's Chop-house, 54. 

D'Orsay, Count, and Apsley House, 
14, 51. 

Douglas, Stephen A. , 264. 



Douglass, Frederick, 295. 

Duels : Soule' with Turgot, 80 ; 

Cutting with Breckenridge, 227; 

Colonel James Monroe and a 

Naval Lieutenant, 227. 
Dumas the Elder, 131, 

Ekenhead, Lieutenant, swims from 
Sestos to Abydos, 211. 

Emancipation Proclamation, Story 
of the, 264. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, in Lon- 
don, 45. 

Emperor Napoleon and Goodyear's 
Foot-balls, 114. 

England as a Home, 137 ; the Man- 
ners of the People, 1 38. 

English Climate, Influence of, 
36. 

Episcopalians and President Lin- 
coln, 310. _ 

Esneh, Visit to, 29. 

Eugenie, the Empress, and the 
" Black Warrior Affair," 73. 

Europe, First Visit to, 13 ; Second 
Visit, 32 ; Third Visit, 57 ; Fourth 
Visit, 137. 

Everett, Chilling Reception by Hon. 
Edward, 13. 

Ferdinand, Emperor of Austria, 
20. 

Fessenden, W. P., Relations with 
Chase, 281 ; Appointed Secretary 
of Treasury, 298 ; Martyr to Dys- 
pepsia, 307 ; Relations with Sum- 
ner, 307. 

Field, David Dudley and Cyrus W. , 
199. 

Field, Rev. Justin, 201. 

Fillmore, Ex-President, 181. 

Flagg, Azariah C, on Expenditures, 
279. 

Foreign Ministers in Washington, 
Sentiments of, 318. 



33J: 



INDEX. 



Fractional Currency, Issue of and 

Demand for, 259. 
Francis, Dr. John W., 180. 
French Court, Presentations at the, 

64. 

Gallatin, Albert, 226. 

Gallatin, James, of the National 
Bank, 256. 

Gas-Company Presidents and Tax- 
ation, 276. 

Georgi, an Eccentric Invalid, 320. 

Girdham's, William, Anecdotes of 
Byron, 210 et seq. 

Goodyear's India Rubber at the 
Paris Exhibition, 104 ; his Can- 
non-balls, 114. 

Grant, General Scott's KecoUections 
of, 223. 

Greeley, Horace, 63 ; Commissioner 
to Paris Exhibition, 116 ; Arrest 
on Civil Process, 117; in the 
Prison of Clichy, 120 ; his Good- 
humor, 121 ; Donn Piatt's Ac- 
count of the Affair, 122 ; Anec- 
dotes of, 816. 

Gregory XVI. , Pope of Rome, 24. 

Grey, Earl, Dyspeptic and Bitter, 
147. 

Griswold, Rufus A., 225. 

Groesbeck, Anecdotes of Mr., 68. 

Guizot, M., 130 ; fiimous Mot, 15. 

Hall, Mr. S. C, Hospitality of, 144. 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene, and John Ja- 
cob Astor, 223. 

Halpine, Chas. G. {Miles O'Reilly'), 
318. 

Hardwicke, the Bluff Earl of, 147. 

Harriet Lane, Prince of Wales on 
board of the, 242. 

Harrington, Geo., Assistant Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, 26 1 . 

Hartley, John F., of the Treasury, 
308. 



Hawthorne, N., 198; in London, 

145 ; Anecdotes of, 159. 
Hogg, "the Ettrick Shepherd," 

Anecdotes of, 208, 209. 
Holland, King of, some Account of, 

17. 
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 198, 202 ; 

his Poem, F^/ye la France! 234. 
Houston, Sam, of Texas, 175. 
Huvianes : American Students in 

Paris, 124. 
Hunkers and Barn-burners, 182. 

Ibrahim Pasha, 27. 

Income Tax thought Unconstitu- 
tional, 275. 

Indecorum of Parliament and Con- 
gress, 148. 

Irving, Washington, Minister to 
Spain, 30 ; his First Interview 
with Charles Dickens, 31 ; his 
Promising Young Man, 223. 

Isabella II. , Queen of Spain : Prop- 
erty in Cuba, 83 ; Soule' asks for 
an Audience, 84 ; the Palace and 
the Guards, 87 ; Reception of 
American Minister, 89 ; the Inno- 
cent Isabel's Appearance, 00 ; her 
Good-nature and Gratitude, 91 ; 
invites Author to a Ball, 92 ; 
Public Estimate of her Charac- 
ter, 94. 

Jackson, General, in Kew York, 
156. 

James, G. P. R. , Early Life and his 
English Friends, 187; his First 
Novel, 190 ; Arrives in New York, 
190; Residence at Hell Gate, 
190 ; Poetical Description of, 
191 ; Witty Effusion, 196 ; at 
Stockbridge, Mass., 197; Consul 
at Norfolk, Va., 205 ; his Exten- 
sive Acquaintance with Authors, 
208 ; Anecdote of " the Ettrick 



INDEX. 



335 



Shepherd," 208 ; Acquaintance 

with Byron, 210. 
Jenifer, of Mar^-land, Minister at 

Vienna, 20. 
Jerome, Mr. Leonard, 233. 
Johnson, Andrew, Sworn in as 

President, 327. 

Kemble, Mrs. Fanny, 108 ; Anec- 
dotes of, 200. 

Kendall, Geo. W., of N. 0. Pica- 
yune, 38 ; Arrested in London, 
40. 

King, Wm. R., Minister to France, 
15. 

Knapp, Elder, a Remark of, 310. 

Knapp, Shepherd, of the Mechanics' 
Bank, 256. 

Leary, Arthur, of New York, 285. 

Lee, General Scott's Opniion of 
Robert E., 223. 

Licignano, Duke di, 231. 

Lincoln, Accession to Presidency, 
253 ; as a Politician, 2G1, 307 ; 
his Proclamation of Emancipa- 
tion, 265 ; Dismisses Cameron, 
269; Affection for McClellan, 
270 ; Estimate of his Cabinet, 
274; his Economy, 284; Ex- 
plains his Acceptance of Chase's 
Resignation, 300 ; his Style of 
Designating the Presidency, 301 ; 
Humorous Talk, 310 ; Story-tell- 
ing, 312 ; INIanners with Ladies, 
312; his Belief in the Union, 
313 ; his Kind-heartedness, 313; 
his Assassination, 321 et seq. ; 
his Death, 325 ; his Funeral, 
328. 

Lind, Jenny, ]\Ieeting with, 144 
her Arrival in New York, 216 
Appears at Castle Garden, 217 
Barnum's Master-stroke of Pol- 
icy, 218; her Changes of Agree- 



ment, 219 ; Playing Tragedy 
Queen, 220; Hatred oi Humbug 
and Negroes, 220. 

Lisboa, the Good-humored and Hos- 
pitable, 320. 

London and the Chartists, 39 
et seq. 

Louis Napoleon, First Meeting with, 
46 ; his Opinion of Middle-class 
English, 48 ; his Friends in En- 
gland, 50 ; Fashionable Opinion 
of him, 51; as President, 52; 
Lord Aberdeen's Opinion, 53 ; 
Intercourse with the Queen of 
England, 52 ; on Horseback, 52. 

Lover, Sam, and his Songs, 145. 

Lucca, Grand Duke of, Eccentrici- 
ties of, 22 ; his Death, 23. 

Lyons, Lord, the English Minister, 
319. 

Macaulay, Intercourse witli T. B., 
140 ; his Prophecy as to the Fu- 
ture of the United States, 141. 

Madrid, Visit to, 30, 76, 11 et seq. 

Marcy, and the ' ' Ostend Manifes- 
to," 75 ; Secretary of State, 165- 
1 68 ; Refuses to Sign Sickles's 
Commission as Secretary of Le- 
gation in England, 172. 

Mason, John Y., Minister to France, 
57 et seq. 

Mathilde, Princess Demidoff, 105. 

Mavrocordato, Prince, 30. 

McClellan, General Scott's Opinion 
of Geo. B., 223; Quarrel with 
Stanton, 271 ; Lincoln's Affec- 
tion for, 270. 

" Me and the Minister," 15. 

Mehemet Ali, his Gallantry to a 
Lady, 27. 

Melville, Herman, 198, 202. 

Membrane Pajier, 290 ; Anecdote 
regarding, 291. 

Mercier, the Dissatisfied, 319. 



336 



INDEX. 



Mezzofanti, Appearance of Cardi- 
nal, 24. 

Mitchel, the Theatrical Manager, 
and Louis Napoleon, 52. 

Mitchell, D. G. [ik Marvel), and 
Thackeray, 134. 

Monroe, Colonel James, 227. 

Monroe as Minister to France, 226. 

"Monroe Letter," the, 227. 

Montpensier, Due de, at a Concert, 
16. 

Montreal, Committee from New 
York City in, 239 et seq. 

Morley's Hotel, Second-class at 
First-class Prices, 39. 

Mulatto Sculptor in England, a, 
138; his Difficulties, 139; Kind- 
ness of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 
140. 

Murat, Prince Lucien, 32 ; his Ec- 
centricities, 33 ; Ilorse-jockeying, 
33; his Anecdote of his Uncle, 
Joseph Bonaparte, 34 ; his Suc- 
cess in France, 35. 

Names of English Shop-keepers, 55. 

Napoleon III., attempted Assassin- 
ation of, 126 ; his Coolness and 
Courage, 127 ; on Horseback, 
128 ; his Tact, 129 ; his Habits, 
129; Dislike to the United 
States, 129 ; with the Empress in 
Private, 130. See, also, Louis 
Napoleon. 

Napoleon (Prince Jerome) and his 
Wife in New York, 229 ct scq. 

Nemours, Due de, 15. 

Nile, up the, 28. 

Northumberland, Letter from the 
Duke of, 207. 

Nye, James, of Nevada, his Story- 
telling Powers, 315. 

O'Connor, Fergus, and the Chartist 
Petition, 42. 



Oporto, the Duke of, 112. 

Osgood, Eev. Dr., 180. 

Ossuna, Anecdote of the Due d', 24. 

"Ostend Manifesto," the, and Sec- 
retary Marcy, 75 ; the Writer of 
it, 99. 

Owen, pre-Adamite Appearance of 
Prof., 144. 

Palmerston, Personal Magnetism 
of Lord, 147. 

Paris Exhibition of 1855, 101 et seq. 

Parker, Rev. Dr., 201. 

Parliament, Attendance on Houses 
of, 145. 

Patriotism of a Western Clergy- 
man, 259. 

Piatt, Donn, Secretaiy at Paris, 67. 

Picture -Gallery at Madrid, the 
Royal, 78. 

Pierce, President, and his Umbrel- 
la, 156 ; First Introduction to, 
157; his Nomination, 159 ; Fish 
Chowder with, 160 ; Upset in the 
Surf, 161 ; his Presidential Ca- 
reer, 162 et seq. 

Piper, the Amiable, 319. 

Pitt's, Wm., English Taxes, 278. 

Plon-Plon, 105. 

Poe, Lecture by Edgar A., 224. 

Portugal, the King of, 112. 

Presentations at the French Court, 
64. 

President of the United States, Au- 
thor Announced as the. 111. 

Prince Napoleon (Jerome), 104; 
his Personal Appearance, 105 ; 
his Relations with the Emperor, 
1 06 ; his Crimean Record, 107 ; his 
Political Opinions, 107; his Mo- 
rality, 108; his Residence, 109 ; 
Weekly Receptions, 111. 

Prince of Wales. See Wales. 

Prussia, Encounter with the Crown 
Prince of, 19. 



IXDEX. 



337 



Pun oil the K ame of General Cass, 
182. 

Queen Victoria at the Opera, 43 ; 

Friendly to the United States, 

152. 
Quizzing a Cockney, 42. 

Raglan, Lord Fitzroy Somerset, 38. 

Red Jacket, the Indian Chief, 15"). 

Redfield, Heman J., Collector of 
the Port of New York, 1G6. 

Renfrew, Lord, the Prince of Wales 
as, 245. 

Republicanism in the United States 
and Europe, 120. 

Rianzares, Duke of, 112. 

Riots of July, 18G3, in N. Y. City, 
260. 

Risley, II. A., of tlie Treasury De- 
partment, 28G. 

Roosevelt, Ex-Judge, and the Prince 
of Wales, 243. 

Rothschild, Baron James de, 134 ; 
his Cad Manners, 135 ; Invita- 
tion to a Funeral, 155. 

Russell, Lord John, in the House 
of Commons, 147. 

Sanders, George N., of Kentucky, 
37. 

Sardinia, Appearance of the King 
of, 21. 

Schell, Augustus, 106 ; Augustus 
Seizer, 167. 

Schleiden, the Giver of Gothic Din- 
ners, 319. 

Scott, General Winfield, Anecdotes 
of, 221. 

Secession, Threatenings of, 250. 

Secretary of Legation in Paris, 
Troubles of a, 57 et seq. 

Sedgwick, the Family of, 198. 

Senator, the, and his Baby, 125. 

Seven-Thirty Treasury Notes, Pro- 



posed Issue of, 256 ; Popularity 
of, 258. 

Seward, W. A., Secretary of State, 
262 ; a Tiresome Guest, 271 ; 
Anecdote told by him, 272. 

Sewing-Machines at the Paris Ex- 
hibition, 103. 

Shopping with American Strangers, 
125. 

Shubrick, Admiral, 292. 

Shuckers, Mr., Secretary to S. P. 
Chase, 298. 

Sickles, Daniel E., Buchanan's Sec- 
retary of Legation, 172. 

Sofia, Discarded W^ife of Abbas 
Pasha, 29. 

Somerset, Lord Fitzroy, afterward 
Lord Raglan, 38. 

Sophia, the Beautiful Archduchess, 
20. 

Soule', Pierre, Minister to Spain, 
76 ; Reception of Author, 77 ; 
Indignation at Marcy's Dispatch, 
78 ; Relations with the Court, 79 ; 
his Duel with Turgot, 80 ; Polit- 
ical Intrigues with Qneen Isabel- 
la, 83 ; Resigns his Mission, 99. 

Special Constables, American Citi- 
zens in London acting as, 40. 

Specie Payment, Suspension of. 
Prognosticated, 255, 256 ; Opin- 
ions of Secretary Chase, 255, 256 ; 
Suspended Monday, Jan. 1, 1862, 
257. 

Spinner, General, Anecdotes of, 289. 

St. Jago, Formal and Eccentric 
Marquis de, 24. 

Stamps, Government, 277. 

Stanton appointed Secretary of 
War, 267. 

Stebbins, II. G., of New York, 288. 

Stevens, John A., of the Bank of 
Commerce, 256. 

Stoeckl, the Jovial and Card-lov- 
ing, 319. 



338 



INDEX. 



Story-telling, Lincoln's, 312. 

Stowe, Mrs. Ilaniet Beecher, her 
Sincerity, 140. 

Students from America in Paris, 12+. 

Sultan Abdul Medjid, 20. 

Sumner, Charles, and John Y. Ma- 
son, G3 ; his Opinion of Fessen- 
den, 307. 

Sumner, Colonel, at the French 
Court, 69. 

Tassara, the Spanish Minister, and 
the Captured Dispatches, 311; 
somewhat Saturnine, 320. 

Taylor,Moses,ofthe City Bank, 256. 

Taylor, Tom, the Dramatist, 144. 

Tax-bills of 1861-2, 275 et seq. 

Thackeray, W. M., 132 ; the Pro- 
totypes of his Fictitious Charac- 
ters, 133 ; his Knowledge of 
French Character, 133 ; his 
Brusque Manners, 134; at his 
Home in London, 142 ; Talks of 
Dickens, 143 ; Anecdote of, 292. 

Thefts in the Treasury Department, 
292. 

Thomas, of Maryland, Secretary of 
the Treasury, 251. 

Tod, Governor, of Ohio, Nominated 
as Secretary of the Treasury, 298. 

Travels, Extent of Early, 13. 

Treasury of the United States Emp- 
ty, 251 ; First Expedients to Fill 
it, 252 ; Loans in New York, 255 
et seq. ; Proposed Issue of Seven- 
Thirty Notes, 256 ; Author Ap- 
pointed Assistant Secretary, 262. 

Turin, Stay in, 21. 

Tuscany, Grand-duke of, 21. 

Tyler, President, and his Irish 
Coachman, 181. 

Union Club Dinner to Prince Na- 
poleon, 232. 
United States' First Loan in 1861, 



• 250 ; Howell Cobb's Opinion, 251 ; 
Thomas, of Maryland, 251 ; Cis- 
co's Expedients, 251 ; Seven-thir- 
ty Notes, 256 ; Six-twenty Bonds, 
257 ; Fractional Currency, 259. 

Vail, Cashier of the Bank of Com- 
merce, Sustaining Credit of the 
Government, 251. 

Van Buren, E.x-President, in Paris, 
132. 

Van Buren, the late John, 181-184. 

Van Buren, John D., 275. 

Vattemarre, M. Alexandre, 131. 

Veronese, Paul, Anecdote of the 
Painter, 214. 

Victoria Bridge, Formal Opening 
of the, 239. 

Victoria of England Friendly to the 
United States, 1 52. 

Vive la France ! by Dr. O. W. 
Holmes, 234; Translated into 
French by the Author, 235. 

Von Gerolt, the Kind but Timid, 3 19. 

Wade's, Senator, Profanity, 290. 

Wales, the Prince of, to be Invited 
to New York, 238 ; Committee of 
Arrangements, 238; Keceptionin 
Montreal, 239 ; Lunch with, 241 ; 
Arrangements for a Grand Ball, 
242 ; Prince and President, 243 ; 
Arrives in New York, 243 ; Re- 
view of Troo])s, 244 ; Sights of 
New ITork, 245; at the Ball, 
246; at Trinity Church, 247; 
Bible and Prayer-book Presented 
to him, 248 ; leaves New York, 
249 ; Expenses of the Ball, 249. 

Walsh, Hon. Mike, Practical Joker, 
176. 

Washburne, E. B., Candidate for 
Speaker, 288. 

Washington, D. C, Prince of Wales 
visits, 243. 



INDEX. 



339 



War Department, ^Managemenf in 
the, 266. 

Webster, Daniel, 176-180. 

Weed, Thurlow, Governor of New 
York, 272._ 

Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the 
Navy, 273. 

Wellington, Appearance of the Duke 
of, 14; and the Chartists, 39 ; 
Letter from, 207. 

Wheaton's, Henry, Breach of Eti- 
quette, 19. 



Whisky, Taxes on, 278. 

Whiteside, the Tory Barrister, 149. 

Wilberforce, Eloquence of Bishop, 
146. 

Williams, Lunch with Prince of 
Wales at House of General Sir 
W. Femvick, 240. 

Willis, N. P., 225. 

Wise, Henry A., his Dinner Ser- 
vice, 286 ; Anecdote of, 287. 

Wood, Fernando, and Mr. Chase, 
289. 



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F(mrteeu Y'ears Member of the Fuhchau Mission of the American Board. Illus- 
trated with more than 150 characteristic Engravings on Wood. 2 vols., 12iuo, 
Cloth, $5 00. 

GIBBON'S ROME. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Ep- 
WARD GiBnoN. With Notes by Kev. H. H. Milman and M. Guizot. A new cheap 
Edition. To which is added a complete Index of the whole Work, aud a Portrait 
of the Author. vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. 

HAZEN'S SCHOOL AND ARMY IN GERMANY AND FRANCE. The School 
and the Army in Germany and France, with a Diary of Siege Life at Versailles. 
By Brevet Major-General W. B. Hazen, LT.S.A., Colonel Sixth Infantry. Crown 
Svo, Cloth, J2 50. 







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